Piecemeal demolition of San Francisco bridge will take years

While the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge will open to traffic in September, the work needed to take down the old roadway is expected to take years.

Brad McCrea, regulatory director of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, the state agency that oversees protection of the bay, said that building the new bridge will only be half the challenge. “Taking the old Bay Bridge down is as practically as big a project as putting the new one up,” he said.

Environmental restrictions mean the structure will have to be carefully taken apart in sections, in the reverse order that it was originally built.

“They have great documentation about how this old structure was built in the 1930s,” McCrea said. “So they will use the architectural drawings from the 30s, they’ll use all of the photographs they have from the 30s, and they’ll use that as a road map to un-doing what was done 75 years ago.”

Read more here or view the video below:

More than 400 post-war homes face demolition to address structural defects.

The BBC is reporting that residents of more than 400 post-war homes in South Gloucestershire have been told they are earmarked for demolition to make way for new housing.

Merlin Housing Society Ltd said it intends to start knocking down the social housing in spring 2014 “to address structural defects”.

Some residents said the homes were draughty, but others said they were settled and would refuse to move.

Merlin said everyone would be re-homed but this could be outside the area. Those affected will get at least £4,700 compensation.

The landlord has published notices of 424 homes it intends to demolish within the next seven years.

A further 1,000 of the properties – built quickly after World War II – will be refurbished.

Read more here.

SIAC Demolition demolishes bridge over live railway line.

SIAC Demolition, with a little assistance from the team at John Tinnelly, recently tackled the demolition of the Doyle’s Bridge at Athlone.

This time-lapse video captures all the action.

High definition video of Big Cabin Creek bridge implosion.

We#re a little late to the party on this one as the blast actually took place back on 1 February 2013.

However, when you see the footage of the SH-28 bridge over Big Cabin Creek in Pensacola being blasted, we think you’ll agree it was worth the wait:

Investigation reveals the boy killed on a Philippines rooftop during a demolition was shot

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that a murder case has been filed against members of a demolition team who killed a boy. The result of investigation conducted by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) also revealed evidence of violation of rights, not only with regard to the killing of the boy but also the breach of rules by the court sheriff and the team who carried out the demolition.

The AHRC says: In October 12, 2012, we issued an appeal asking for an investigation on the killing of John Khali Lagrimas, a boy who was killed in a demolition in 2 October, 2012 at 9:30am in San Roque village, Tarlac City.

In a letter dated 22 February 2013, Loretta Ann Rosales, chairperson of the Philippines Commission on Human Rights, has informed that;

“As noted in the report, “it is evident that there were violations of human rights committed, based on facts and pieces of evidence.”

The testimony of Mark Ernest Lagrimas, brother of the victim, revealed that he; “…saw the alleged leader of the demolition team, fired his gun towards them and on the third time of firing, he (Mark) jumped together with John to the other rooftop. Moments later, John Khalie Lagrimas was seen with gunshot wounds.”

Read more here.

Top down demolition from a whole new perspective.

Now here’s a view of a demolition project you don’t see every day.

The widening availability and plummeting price of drone-mounted cameras has opened up a whole new field of demolition videography, allowing creative types to scale tall buildings in a single bound.

This one – shot during the initial stages of the demolition of the Hillview Heights tower block on the Wirral – is a great example, the camera going from bottom up to capture the top down process:

Wirral From Above …..Hillview Heights Demolition from Dave Hughes on Vimeo.

CDI to drop El Paso City Hall on 14 April.

El Paso City Hall will be demolished at 9am on 14 April to make room for a new $50 million Downtown baseball park.

The demolition of the 10-storey building, which first opened as the city’s headquarters in 1979, is the final step to clear a 5.5-acre site to began constructing a new Triple-A minor league baseball stadium, which is expected to open in 2014. The city began tearing down the Insights El Paso Science Center this week.

City Hall’s demolition will come one day after another landmark – the Asarco smelter smokestacks – will be brought down.

“We actually didn’t want to do it the same day as the smokestacks because it might create a public safety hazard and cause a lot of stress on our public safety officials

Grant MacKay Demolition Co. is handling the $1.5 million demolition, including the Insights museum, but Controlled Demolition Inc. will actually implode City Hall.

UK demolition giant safeguarding Olympic legacy.

Keltbray is helping to transform the former Olympic Park into post games-mode and has demolished and removed a 500 tonne pedestrian bridge for Balfour Beatty as part of the Queen Elizabeth legacy project. With five main girder trusses, some weighing over 75 tonnes, this is the largest single lifting operation Keltbray has undertaken.

The ‘Stratford City Bridge’ which is over 70 metres long and 30 metres wide, was designed by Tony Gee & Partners and constructed by Balfour Beatty to provide primary access for spectators entering the Olympic Park from the Westfield Shopping Centre. It features five main steel girder trusses, weighing over 75 tonnes and spanning 55 metres over the waterways canal, longer than the adjacent Aquatics Centre pool.

“Working in such a high profile area the project had a number of complex issues to contend with at planning stage including stringent safety and environmental controls working adjacent to the waterways, logistical constraints in the park and numerous lifting and plant operations occurring simultaneously on site but the bridge was removed ahead of programme and without any major incident/accident,” says Keltbray’s project manager Gavin Lawless. “We originally looked at the possibility of removing the bridge for reuse elsewhere as a complete unit, but were unable to find a suitable location so the timber decking has been removed 90% intact with most of it donated for use in a sustainable eco-garden at the Cre8 Lifestyle Centre in Hackney Wick to benefit the local community. The remaining materials, including concrete and steel, are being crushed and recycled for use in other projects.”

Keltbray’s lifting operations manager, Steve Leyton, was extensively involved in the project and spoke regarding the main span lifts: “A Liebherr LG 1550 1000t mobile crane was used to lift the main girders as part of the single biggest lift operation Keltbray has ever completed. It is also the first time a project of this size was not sub-contracted out under CPA contract lift agreement. We hope with this new in-house expertise, we can reduce our craneage costs and become more competitive in securing future works of this kind.”

Caterpillar Demlone high reach tackles three-storey Oslo building.

Fresh from wintry Oslo comes this nice new video of a Caterpillar DEM50 high reach excavator tackling a three-storey structure adjoining a gas station.

The dipper-mounted dust suppression system seems to be working exceptionally well.

Weekend implosion for third and final Kincardine block.

Kincardine’s skyline has changed forever with the demolition of the village’s last tower block of flats.

The colourful landmarks were defining features in the area’s skyline for many years before two of the three blocks were demolished by Safedem in 2010. The remaining building, Ramsay Court, was flattened yesterday.

The demolition was carried out by Dem-Master Demolition, who have been working within the community for some time to ensure the needs of the locals were met on the day and that disruption was kept to a minimum for surrounding residents.

“We are delighted with the result of the demolition. A significant amount of planning went into this project which resulted in a very smooth, safe and successful operation,” says Dem-Master’s Richard McCulloch. “I’d like to thank Fife Council and Fife Constabulary for their efforts in making this project a success but most notably, the residents of Kincardine. Their understanding and cooperation with the evacuation arrangements was greatly appreciated.”

Read more here, or view video below: