Newcastle contractors on standby as post-flood inspections continue.

Flood-damaged flats in Newcastle which are close to collapse are likely to be demolished, engineers have said.

According to BBC reports, floodwater gouged out ground beneath Spencer Court, Newburn, on Tuesday, exposing the piles holding it up and badly damaging foundations.

Residents attending a public meeting reacted angrily to the news the flats might have to be pulled down.

On Thursday two further blocks of council flats were evacuated amid fears Spencer Court could collapse.

Residents of Hareside Walk and Hareside Close had been allowed home but were asked to leave again.

Housing company Your Homes Newcastle – which manages council housing for Newcastle City Council – said it took the decision in the interests of residents’ safety.

Mick Murphy, technical director at Newcastle City Council, said after the meeting: “Engineers assessments say that it’s unsafe and probably unsafe to try and repair.”

As of 1 October 2012, when the inspector calls, the meter’s running.

On the first of October 2012, the UK’s health and safety landscape will change forever, and with it – possibly – the bank balances of demolition and construction companies across the country.

The Health and Safety Executive’s Fee for Intervention programme is a cost recovery scheme designed to cover the HSE’s costs by making transgressors pay – and pay handsomely – for breaches of health and safety law.

£124 per hour for an HSE inspector’s time and as much as £750 for a letter raised as a result of an intervention are just some of the likely charges.

With the financial axe about to fall, DemolitionNews (sponsored by Rammer) visited the Health and Safety Executive’s Bootle headquarters to meet Gordon MacDonald – the programme director behind the new scheme – to find out more.

Process could take more than 20 years, report says.

Cleveland Councilman Tony Brancatelli traveled to Washington D.C., urging leaders to dramatically increase federal funding for home demolitions.

Brancatelli issued an eight-page report to U.S. Treasury officials that indicates it could take Cleveland 22 years and $4.5 billion to take down the condemned homes that need to come down, if additional funding isn’t found.

“When you look at what it costs to board-up a home, what it costs to cut the lawns and maintain them, that’s when you see the skyrocketing costs go up,” said Brancatelli.

Brancatelli told NewsChannel5 it costs an average of $10,000 to take down a condemned home, and with the city’s current budget, it can only take down about 600 houses a year.

“We need to take down these abandoned homes more quickly, so we can save millions in tax dollars, and restore property values,” Brancatelli said. “We need to make sure this issue gets involved in both Presidential campaigns, and so far, we have not heard much about the housing debate out of either side.”

Read more here or view video below:

Mayor takes first swing at eyesore shopping mall.

With the swipe of a mechanical claw, D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray demolished a slice of a Ward 7 retail center that has been a sore point for officials and residents alike for two decades and symbolized the challenges that come with ambitious projects east of the Anacostia River.

The District plans to build 315,000 square feet of new stores, restaurants and housing at the site — including an “anchor tenant” in Wal-Mart — through its developers, the Rappaport Companies and William C. Smith & Company.

Mayor Gray beamed about the project at the long-dormant plaza of darkened and rundown stores where Alabama Avenue meets Naylor and Good Hope roads. The site has been a source of public struggle for the District since 1989, when the revitalization task force was formed, and spawned seven legal challenges — six of which have been resolved — after the city seized the site through eminent domain in 2005.

Wrecking ball and crawler crane tackling what explosives failed to budge.

Regular readers will recall that back at the beginning of September we brought you a pair of videos on the problematic demolition of the former Philips building in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. The first video showed how a particularly strong lift shaft had withstood the explosives used, remaining defiantly upright; the second showed a crawler crane and wrecking ball carrying on where the explosives left off.

Well, it seems that the building still isn’t quite ready to lie down and die, as this (overlong) video shows. There’s about nine and a half minutes of wrecking ball hitting concrete and then, at the 9:40 mark, the building decides to fight back one last time; striking the wrecking ball and dragging it to the ground, causing the crane to flail wildly.

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CDI footage shows true scale of WECT Raycom TV tower.

Last week we brought you some raw footage of the explosive demolition of what is claimed to be the “tallest man-made structure ever felled by explosives”.

But now, thanks to the guys at Controlled Demolition Inc (CDI) we can bring you some spectacular footage that shows the mammoth structure coming down in close up.

Discovery of asbestos adds $800,000 to Saginaw demolition costs.

The discovery of asbestos inside a Saginaw structure scheduled for demolition is adding $800,000 to the county’s estimated cost to take it down.

The Saginaw Centre is part of a larger county project to add parking on about 6 acres south of The Dow Event Center downtown. The project also includes the demolition of the Saginaw Plaza Hotel and the renovation of a parking ramp.

Saginaw County Controller Marc McGill says that the project initially was estimated to cost about $4.8 million.

He says removing the hazardous material has added $813,750 to the bottom line.

Read more here.

Hot stuff as latest DemolitionNews video goes live.

AR Demolition was front and centre at a major clean-up operation following a fire at woodwork engineering factory in Coventry. And the DemolitionNews cameras were there to capture the action.

Millions of pounds’ worth of stock was lost as the fire swept through Ney Ltd, in Middlemarch Business Park.

More than 100 firefighters tackled the inferno while managers of the firm could only watch on in horror as the factory burned.

Sneak preview of exciting new video from ECY Haulmark.

On Friday 28 September 2012, attachments specialist ECY Haulmark will use the Institute of Demolition Engineers Autumn Seminar as the official launchpad for a new video produced in conjunction with us here at DemolitionNews.com.

The video has been designed to highlight a recent addition to the ECY Haulmark product stable but, as the name suggests, it will also offer viewers a glimpse of the future.

We will, of course, bring you the full video next Friday. But, until then, please take a look at this exclusive preview.

CDI claims another world record as TV tower falls.

The tallest manmade structure east of the Mississippi River came crashing down Thursday afternoon, the climax to an event that served as a learning experience for Fort Bragg soldiers and a fundraiser.

The 1,905-foot television tower once belonged to Raycom Media and had towered over the pines in Bladen County for decades, according to officials.

Last year, the tower, which was made obsolete by the switch to digital signal three years ago, was donated to the Green Beret Foundation along with 77 acres. The charity, which helps the families of wounded and killed Special Forces soldiers, will sell the land and more than 1,000 tons of steel to raise money, according to Robert Schaezler, a lawyer who works with the foundation.

A total dollar figure is not known, but the funds will go toward a number of programs, including scholarships and in vitro fertilization for Green Berets whose combat injuries inhibit their ability to have children.

Read more here or view the video below:

The demolition itself set a world record for the tallest manmade structure imploded, according to Mark Loizeaux of Controlled Demolition Inc. Loizeaux said his company also owned the previous world record.