Bellaire Bridge rapidly turning into construction Methuselah.

During the past year, London managed to welcome and send safely on their way several million overseas visitors that helped make the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics one of the most memorable ever. In the US, the country managed to stage one of the most hotly-contested and expensive Presidential elections in history. And in the field of electronics, the passing of Apple icon Steve Jobs barely registered as a blip on the evr-upward curve of the company’s progress towards global domination.

And yet, an ugly, crumbling eyesore of a bridge managed to survive the year without so much as a scratch, despite the fact that it’s been on the engineering equivalent of Death Row longer than Jack Alderman.

The saga of the Bellaire Interstate Toll Bridge again came to the forefront this week. The deteriorating span’s demolition has taken on a life of its own.

The latest stumbling block is an escrow account between the city of Benwood and the bridge’s owners — Krystal Chaklos of KDC Investments and Lee Chaklos of Delta Demolition.

Benwood officials were seeking to have Chakloses place $500,000 in escrow to ensure completion of the bridge demolition once the project begins. That didn’t fly with the Chakloses, as they wanted their name on the account.

Thus, another demolition stalemate. To their credit, Benwood officials have offered up a proposal to remove the stumbling block.

Benwood is calling for an independent arbiter to have final say over a $500,000 escrow account. City leaders, however, say they still have yet to hear back from the bridge’s owners whether they will accept the deal, which says if there is a problem with bridge demolition than independent arbitrator would mediate.

Read more here or check back in 365 days to see if it’s still standing.

Credit where it’s due as double implosion goes without hitch.

We have been very critical of our Chinese compatriots over the past few years; there’s just something about their almost total disregard for human rights and health and safety that we find oddly irritating.

But we are nothing if not even handed, and so when we saw this new video of an unnamed Chinese implosion that occurred directly after Christmas, we just had to share it with you.

Here at DemolitionNews Towers, 2012 will go down as the year of the burrowing excavator.

Over the past 365 days, we have reported on machines falling into basements so often that the office keyboard now adds the words “falls into basement” as predicitive text whenever we type the word excavator.

And so it is oddly appropriate that one of our last stories of 2012 should feature that once rare but now surprisingly common phenomenon – The burrowing excavator.

The Somerville Fire Department took these photos of an excavator that fell into the basement of a building undergoing demolition.

The Fire Department’s rescue company, along with building inspectors, responded to the incident, and there were no injuries, the email says.

Read more here.

River bears brunt as high reach fells top three floors.

Almost a month ago, we reported that Adamo Demolition had halted work on the back of the Riverwalk Plaza Hotel in Jackson, Missouri due to a mishap in which parts of a concrete panel fell into the Grand River.

The following footage – which shows debris hitting the river – was posted on YouTube just two days ago. As all we have to go on is the date the footage was posted, we’re unsure whether this was from the original incursion or whether this was a repeat.

We’d love to hear from you if you know more:

Controlled Demolition Inc. blasts and rolls stadium press box for text book implosion.

Earlier this week, we brought you the raw footage of the controlled explosive demolition that felled the press box at Kansas State University’s Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

And now we are delighted to bring you the official and higher-quality footage from Controlled Demolition Inc, the explosives team behind the successful blast.

Jackhammer manufacturer adopts the subtle approach.

Advertising professionals have become smarter over the years, cooking up ever-more-ingenious ways to convince us to but their wares.

From the “buy our products and be cool” approach adopted by the likes of Apple, the esoteric approach adopted by Brad Pitt in the Chanel No. 5 ads, or the “buy our products or we will continue to irritate the hell out of you” approach of the GoCompare insurance comparison website, it seems that their are almost as many advertising schools of thought as there are potential customers.

Which is why we so appreciate this unsophisticated, down and dirty, in your face approach adopted by jackhammer maker Bosch in its roadside ad campaign in Ecuador.

Company hired to demolish Joplin schools now charged with forgery.

The company first hired to demolish three Joplin schools following the 2011 tornado is now facing felony charges.

Urban Metropolitan Development (UMD) of Atlanta as well as project manager Jennifer Taylor each face 10 counts of felony forgery.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster announced the charges Tuesday at Joplin City Hall. He says payroll checks were compared with bank statements from the workers, and things didn’t add up.

“Initially there were some errors and some questions that were raised by some of the documents that were turned into the Department of Labor. The Department of Labor then asked some follow up questions to see if we could get straight answers. We didn’t get straight answers and that created a full-blown investigation.”

Read more here.

Rock blasting set on drought-plagued Mississippi River.

Barge operators along a key stretch of the Mississippi River braced Monday for months of restricted shipping as crews prepared to begin blasting large rock formations that are impeding navigation on the drought-plagued waterway.

Contractors from Iowa and Ohio could begin drilling holes into the troublesome Mississippi River bedrock south of St. Louis and detonating explosives inserted inside as early as Tuesday, the Army Corps of Engineers said. They expect to remove enough rock to fill about 50 dump trucks, possibly more.

The demolition of the massive formations near Thebes, Ill., coincides with an unusual move by the agency to release water from a southern Illinois lake, adding a few inches of depth to a river that is getting lower by the day – largely because of the lingering effects of the nation’s worst drought in decades.

Read more here.

Assessment of management systems bags GBM accreditation.

GBM Demolition has been awarded an Achilles Verify B2 Assessment Certificate. The company believes this achievement will create new opportunities for predictive maintenance contracts within the utilities sector.

The Achilles Verify B2 assessment involves an evaluation of the company’s Health and Safety, Environmental and Quality Management Systems. The assessment takes two days to complete, with the first day focusing on all relevant documentation, and the second evaluates each system’s practical application during a site visit.

The supplier qualifying services provided by Achilles are used by more than 50 utility companies from industries including power generation, transmission and distribution, nuclear, water, telecom and gas.

“This is a fantastic achievement for the company,” says director Simon Grantham. “To get all of our management systems in place and successfully assessed to the high standards that the utilities sector demands, puts GBM in a great position to win new business.”

Read more here.

24 hours late, but twin blast goes to plan.

As we reported yesterday, so-called mechanical issues had delayed the dual blast at the Celenese plant at Pampa in Texas.

But when the explosives engineers finally got the green light, they certainly made it worth the wait.