Contractor treads carefully on site of former battery plant.

More than 100 years of history is coming down in Frankfort, Indiana. City officials said what was most recently the Exide Battery plant should be completely demolished by December.

However, demolishing a former battery factory, which once housed hazardous chemicals, is something done with extra precaution. Frankfort Building Inspector Sam Payne is monitoring the process.

“[The plant] had lead and acid, and such materials they made the batteries with,” Payne said. “[The workers] are washing down all the desks, sucking it all up, and decontaminating the whole building before taking it down.”

“A large 85-foot boom will go above some of those facilities and will provide a mist down upon them so that dust stays at an absolute minimum,” Frankfort Mayor Chris McBarnes said. “Barbed-wire fences are being put around the facility at this time to make sure no one can get into that area.”

Production stopped at the plant more than 20 years ago. Exide Battery decided to demolish the buildings.

Read more here, or view the local news video below:

Take one Komatsu excavator, stir in some migraine-inducing music and you have a party.

Regular readers might recall that almost a year ago – at the behest of IDE president John Woodward – we compiled a list of demolition-related. In fact, for those of you that use Spotify, you can still listen to the resulting playlist here.

However, times marches on and musical tastes and trends change (though not normally for the better in our humble opinion). And so when we were sent a link to a YouTube video featuring a “demolition dancer”, we were intrigued.

Depending on your age and viewpoint, what follows is either urban street dance set against an industrial landscape and soundscape that speaks to the decay of modern society, or it’s a guy walking a bit funny in front of an excavator accompanied by music that sounds like a hangover. We’ll leave you to decide.

MGL Demolition tackles blocks undermined by recent North East flooding.

Demolition work has begun at a block of flats left close to collapse by flooding in Newcastle. A platform has been built to allow heavy machinery to access Spencer Court in Newburn.

MGL Demolition is carrying out the work on behalf of developer Dunelm Homes. It is expected to take about two weeks.

Families were moved from their homes after the building’s foundations were washed away when a culvert collapsed on 25 September during flash floods.

An excavator with a reach of 34 metres being used to dismantle the building in a “safe and controlled way”, MGL said.

The roof of the four-floor, eight-flat complex has been removed.

Read more here.

High definition video of yesterday’s Richemont explosive demolition.

This weekend saw the long-awaited explosive demolition of three chimneys at the Richemont steel facility in France by French demolition giant, Cardem.

Although details of this explosive demolition are still coming in, we do know that the three stacks measured 75, 111 and 11 metres in height and that the blast used around 80 kg of explosives.

Read more here, or view the high def’ video below:

Demolition des cheminees de la centrale EDF de Richemont from ThierryPhotographie on Vimeo.

FBI serves subpoena on Warren for grand jury

Federal officials have ordered the city of Warren to provide additional documents as part of a grand jury investigation of a city administrator and government contracts.

For the second time in seven weeks, officials recently demanded information about Deputy Public Service Director Gus Ghanam. According to documents obtained by The Macomb Daily under the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI served a subpoena, dated Sept. 25, for the city to provide documents including bids, purchases, invoices, receipts, memos, emails and other records regarding Able Demolition.

The subpoena does not explain why federal investigators are interested in Able Demolition’s activities in Warren. The city hired the company, of Shelby Township, for three razing projects: the Olympic-size city swimming pool in 2009; a commercial strip on Van Dyke, south of Nine Mile Road; and the Warren Co-op historic barn.

Read more here.

Birmingham company celebrates anniversary with superb book.

It’s Saturday morning and the postman has just made his way past the portcullis and guard dogs at Demolition News Towers to deliver – by special delivery – a package originating in Birmingham.

Upon opening it, we’ve just taken delivery of a new book from Coleman & Company as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations. Entitled Fifty Years of Progress, it is a weighty tome that charts the company’s progress from family-owned plant hirer to nationally and internationally-recognised demolition contractor, the book contains a huge array of startling facts and some stunning photos.

Among the more illuminating images is a letter to the taxman explaining exactly why Colemman and Company wouldn’t be paying their bill.

The book makes a fantastic read (and looks pretty smart on the Demolition News Towers coffee table) so we strongly urge you to contact Coleman & Company and bag yourself a copy – And while you’re about it, make a contribution to the company’s Triple 50 charity campaign.

Caerphilly council advised to consider demolition of school Cwmcarn school amid asbestos fears.

A specialist contractor has advised Caerphilly council to consider demolishing a school closed last week because of asbestos, it has emerged. The 900-pupil Cwmcarn High School shut last Friday after workmen spotted the potentially hazardous material.

It partially reopened on Friday with sixth-formers reporting to the performing arts centre in the morning. Year 11 pupils return on Monday and Year 10 pupils on Tuesday. Lessons for other pupils resume on 5 November. The locations for the remaining pupils’ lessons are still to be confirmed.

Caerphilly council has defended its actions in closing the school immediately on receipt of a structural report last Friday which identified asbestos.

The report recommended an immediate notice of prohibited access, although the risk to students and staff from fibres of damaged asbestos was said to be low.

The council has also revealed that the specialist contractors who wrote the report also advised it to “look at the abatement/demolition of Cwmcarn High School, due to the implicated costs of continuing to operate without further risk of exposure”.

The council estimates it would cost millions to remove the asbestos, but says it is considering all options.

Read more here.

A week of implosions fells pollution abatement structures.

Controlled Demolition Inc (CDI), acting as Implosion Subcontractor to Main Demolition Contractor, LVI Environmental Services, has carried out the successful explosives felling of two structural steel industrial structures ranging from 80-feet to 90-feet tall, and one 160-foot tall steel chimney at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Pine Bluff, Arkansas in three three phases:

Phase A – 12:00 PM, Monday, October 8, 2012; Phase B – 12:00 PM, Thursday, October 11, 2012, and; Phase C – 11:35 AM, Saturday, October 13, 2012.

Erith Group makes the news headlines two days in a row; and for all the right reasons.

Former World Demolition Contractor of the Year has welcomed UK Prime Minister David Cameron and an accompanying TV news crew to its Kingsgate House demolition project in Westminster, London.

As part of the company’s commitment to the community, it has employed three people from ‘The Prince’s Trust’, of which Cameron is a keen supporter. The Trust is a charity that helps young people into work who may have had difficulties with school or other areas of life, and gives them the chance to improve their key workplace skills and whilst increasing confidence.

ITV News visited the site and interviewed the team to understand how they felt that they are contributing to the demolition project.

This is the second time that Erith has hit the headlines in the past few days. Earlier this week, the company made the headlines through its involvement in the recent Crossrail project at Paddington.

Two to be sentenced over illegal dumping of debris on New York farm.

A jury on Tuesday found Cross Nicastro, owner of the 28-acre farm on the Mohawk River in Frankfort, and Dominick Mazza, owner of a waste management company, guilty of violating the Clean Water Act.

The debris came from New Jersey rubbish that was put through an industrial shredding machine without the asbestos first being removed.

The defendants “flouted numerous federal laws designed to protect Americans from exposure to toxic materials when they dumped asbestos-contaminated waste into an area that included sensitive wetlands,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Ignacia Moreno said in a statement.

Read more here.