City officials red-faced as tender is leaked.

A call for tenders to demolish an abandoned community centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia sent officials scrambling and had locals scratching their heads on Wednesday.

The Northcliffe Recreation Centre has been boarded up for almost two years as the city decides what to do with the building and surrounding land.

On Wednesday morning a notice appeared on the Government of Nova Scotia tenders page asking for bids to demolish the building.

The trouble is neither senior staff at city hall nor the local councilor knew anything about that. The tender was rescinded after CBC inquiries determined the demolition hadn’t been approved by council.

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Company to draw upon Fukushima experience to forge new direction.

Veolia Environnement SA, which treated radioactive water from Japan’s nuclear meltdown at Fukushima, plans to use the experience to move into decontamination and power plant dismantling.

The water utility and the nuclear research group known as CEA plan to earn as much as 400 million euros ($534 million) in revenue within about four years by cleaning radioactive sites and taking apart installations, they said today.

“The market is developing very quickly,” Veolia Chief Executive Officer Antoine Frerot told a press conference today in Paris. About 300 nuclear reactors will have to be halted worldwide within two decades including in France, Germany, Japan and the U.S., he said.

The shift into the atomic market comes after President Francois Hollande pledged to lower France’s dependence on the energy and shut the country’s oldest plant at Fessenheim. It’s also the first new market Veolia has publicly announced it will enter into since Frerot pledged to pull out of some countries and businesses in a bid to boost profit.

Veolia and the CEA want to oversee and coordinate large- scale nuclear projects in the “currently fragmented” market, according to Frerot. “We are independent of all nuclear operators so we have a role to play.”

France derives more than three quarters of its power production from 58 nuclear reactors operated by state-controlled Electricite de France SA. Dismantling nuclear installations will cost an estimated 32 billion euros, the state auditor said last year. The CEA spends about 600 million euros a year on such operations.

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Japanese method demolishes 456-foot tall Tokyo hotel from the bottom up.

We will admit that, in this instance, we were a little late to the party – A video of this extraordinary demolition method has been doing the rounds online for more than a week now while we scrabbled around trying to get some more information on the story.

But, at long last, we have finally found a definitive explanation of how the system works.

According to reports, The Taisei Ecological Reproduction System (Tecorep) is designed to safely bring down buildings over 100 metres (328 feet) high. Temprary columns are used to prop up the roof, and are progressively lowered by jacks — the effect makes it look like the building is being constructed in reverse, coming down step by step. The technique has been used on the 139-meter (456-foot) Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka, which closed down nearly two years ago.

According to Taisei Corp, the advantages of the technique go beyond safety and aesthetics, too — Tecorep cuts down noise by 17 to 23 decibels, reduces dust by up to 90 percent, and is said to be more environmentally friendly.

Read more here, or watch the astonishing video below:

Rhine Demolition puts stack under wraps ahead of asbestos removal works.

Workers at the slowly vanishing former Peninsula Plywood site are preparing a 175-foot chimney stack for its demise.

They are placing scaffolding around the cylindrical structure — notable for its height and signature “K Ply” on the flank — before removing asbestos-bearing silver paint.

The hazardous material must be removed before the stack is toppled around the end of March, according to Port of Port Angeles Director of Engineering Chris Hartman.

The Port of Port Angeles, which owns the 19-acre waterfront site at 439 Marine Drive, signed Rhine Demolition of Tacoma to a $1.6 million contract to demolish 11 buildings dating to 1941, including a 180,000-square-foot mill building that will be gone by mid-April.

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With clean-up complete, overdue blast now looks imminent.

The South Bay Power Plant’s time is almost up. Demolition crews have removed 24,000 tons of recyclable material, as well as material that is harmful to the environment. All that is left is one big implosion.

The plant, which is located on Chula Vista’s bayfront, was originally slated for implosion as early as October 2012.

However, cleanup took a bit longer than expected. Chula Vista Mayor Cheryl Cox told 10News it needed to be done correctly because the plant is located so close to sensitive habitats along San Diego Bay.

Read more here or view the video below:

Contractor stands firm in face of criticism over council’s demolition spend.

The leader of the Labour opposition within Scunthorpe council says he was “shocked” by the “colossal amount” spent with GBM Demolition during the demolition of two key structures last year and has called for an enquiry into the council’s procurement policies.

Demolition of Scunthorpe Leisure Centre and the adjacent Carlton Street multi-storey car park cost taxpayers more than £950,000 it has been revealed. The two structures were pulled down between September 2011 and January last year.

The leisure centre demolition cost had previously been estimated at £150,000 and was covered in the £20 million-plus budget for The Pods leisure centre. The car park then had to be demolished after a structural report suggested a potential risk of it collapsing.

Council bosses have defended the high cost of the project, saying it represented the market value for a scheme of its kind.

Councillor Liz Redfern, leader of the council, said: “We would always get three quotes, so that would have been the market competitive rate.

Details of the project were revealed by GBM Demolition. The firm said: “Both structures were demolished following the clearance of all asbestos-containing materials.”

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Dilapidated buildings face wrecking ball.

Qatar’s municipality and urban planning ministry is preparing a list of old and dilapidated buildings in some key areas of Doha and Al Rayyan that are soon to be demolished, The Peninsula has reported.

The areas in which these buildings are located include Najma, Umm Ghuwailina, Old Airport, Bin Mahmoud, Old Salata, Old Ghanem, Doha Jadeed, Al Asmakh, Freej Abdul Aziz, Bin Omran and New and Old Al Rayyan.

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Demolition company helps in urban rescue initiative.

Specialist search and rescue teams have teamed up with demolition company Windmill Group to deconstruct a drill tower at a Manchester fire station as part of a unique training exercise.

Members of the Urban Search and Rescue Team (USAR) – who are more used to attending natural disasters across the world and searching collapsed buildings – have already demolished large parts of the structure at Philip’s Park Community Fire Station.

The work is part of a training operation named Exercise Pisa which is continuing this week and involves USAR members from Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Merseyside and Lancashire Fire and Rescue Services.

Teams spent two days onsite last week using large drills, large concrete breakers and hot-cutting equipment to demolish the top section of the structure – overseen on site by the demolition company Windmill Group (UK) Ltd.

The 16-metre high drill tower – which is located in the station yard and used by crews to train – has to be demolished as it is no longer fit for purpose. It also has a slight lean, a fact that earned the exercise the nickname Pisa. But rather than just knock down the structure, a USAR member from the station suggested it be used for training for team members at GMFRS and neighbouring services.

Windmill Group (UK) Ltd decided to assist with the project so they can compare equipment and techniques and – more importantly – to ensure that the teams are safe.

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Freedom of Information request reveals extent of Fee For Intervention charging.

A little over three months into the implementation of its Fee for Intervention (FFI) scheme, provisional statistics obtained by legal firm DWF LLP from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) under the Freedom of Information Act show that it’s been a busy period for the safety regulator.

“Most notably, of the premises where FFI time has been recorded, 373 are within the construction sector. This figure is likely to be lower than the true number of construction sites at which the HSE spent time, as transient construction work is recorded against the head office address for the relevant duty holder. As such, there appears to have been a particular focus on this sector. It’s difficult to say why this is, but it could be due to the sector being an easy target for inspectors, or because greater clarity is needed around the legal obligations of the construction sector. Whatever the cause, operators in the construction sector should be aware,” says DWF regulatory partner, Steffan Groch.

“Anyone receiving an FFI invoice will have 21 days from receipt in which to query it, should they believe they weren’t in material breach of the law or the time the fee is charged for is incorrect. If they remain unhappy after the HSE’s response they will then have a further 21 days in which to lodge a dispute. With the resulting FFI invoices not due to be published until the end of this month, we will have to wait and see how many Notices of Contravention will be issued, and how many appeals result.”

Glasgow Housing Association awards term contracts to three bidders.

UK news portal Construction Enquirer is reporting that three contractors – Safedem, TDS and Dem-Master – have been selected by the Glasgow Housing Association for a four year, £18 million term contract.

The association has carved up work packages into three pipelines identified for the first two years of the framework arrangement.

Details of the full four-year programme have still to be finalised, but Glasgow Housing Association expects to clear many more high rise blocks up to 31 storeys high, covering up to 2,000 flats and about 250 low rise flats as part of its social house building programme.

Read more here.