DemolitionNews will be taking a day off to mark a momentous UK occasion.

As many of you will be aware, tomorrow marks one of the most important days in the UK social calendar for many years. Dignitaries and national representatives have already started to flood in from the four corners of the globe, the Royal Mail service is buckling under the weight of greetings cards and messages of support, and street parties are planned across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.

We are talking, of course, about the birthday of John Woodward, president of the Institute of Demolition Engineers.

We hope that you will all join us in wishing John well, and that this joyous occasion will not be in any way overshadowed by that other minor event taking place in London tomorrow.

The next few months will see a pair of high profile implosions taking place.

On the face of it, Birmingham (the one in the UK) and the Caribbean appear to have very little in common. But in the coming months, they will be united by the force of high profile explosive demolitions.

On 8 May, a pair of student tower-blocks at Aston University are to be reduced to rubble to help clear the way for a £300 million campus regeneration project.

Dalton and Lawrence Towers are to be dropped to launch the key second phase of the scheme. A total of 1,500 students will be evacuated on the day but will be able to witness the demolition at close quarters from a big screen on the campus.

Then, just a few short weeks later, the Las Gladiolas public housing project will be razed this summer after more than a decade of legal wrangling by residents fighting their relocation from the crumbling apartment towers in the heart of Hato Rey.

Puerto Rico Housing Secretary Miguel Hernández Vivoni signed a notice to proceed Tuesday with the company contracted to demolish the four decrepit high-rises. The implosion of the 43-year-old complex is scheduled for July.

Read more on the Aston University story here, and on the Las Gladiolas project here.

Convicted felon charged after claiming respiratory disease contracted at Deutsche Bank

A convicted felon who pocketed $326,000 from the ill-fated Deutsche Bank demolition project was charged yesterday with raking in another $139,000 in disability payments – after falsely claiming he was too sick to work.

Bruce Greenberg, the brother of reputed Gambino family associate Harold Greenberg, had claimed he had contracted a respiratory disease while helping to clean up Ground Zero after Sept. 11, 2001.

Meanwhile, the 370-pound Staten Island man was zipping around town in a spanking new Corvette and supervising a crane at the toxic tower at 130 Liberty St., according to law enforcement officials.

Greenberg, 58, was charged with ripping off the Social Security Administration. Along with his wife Angela, 56, he was also accused of tax evasion for not reporting income from A&G Fabrications Corp., a contractor at the site that worked with the John Galt Corp., a mob-linked demolition firm.

Read more here.

Worker crushed on Galveston hotel demolition project succumbs to injuries.

A demolition worker who was trapped for 20 minutes beneath a concrete slab that collapsed at the Flagship Hotel died of his injuries, officials said.

The Galveston County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the man as Tauelangi Angilau, 65, of Salt Lake City, Utah, He died Tuesday after becoming trapped by a 1,000 pound section of slab while the historic hotel at 2501 Seawall Blvd. was being demolised.

Angilau suffered a crushing injury. An autopsy was scheduled for later today, John Florence, a spokesman for the medical examiner, said.

Firefighters responded at 3:40 p.m. Tuesday to the emergency call of someone trapped by debris from the partial collapse, Fire Chief Jeff Smith said.

Smith didn’t release the injured worker’s name, saying only that he knew the man suffered “extremely critical” injuries.

Read more here or look back at the tale of this ill-fated contract in more detail here.

UK contractor demonstrates its commitment to its local team.

It has been a football season that we at Demolition News Towers would rather forget. Having propped up the Premier League table the entire season like some misshapen foundations, our beloved West Ham look set to fall into the Championship faster than an imploded building. And as if that weren’t bad enough, in a perfect example of why it is wrong to mix business with pleasure, we’re currently lying in third place (behind managerial mastermind, beleaguered Wolves supporter and IDE President John Woodward) in a fantasy premier league competition that we instigated!

But it is pleasing to note that, despite seeing them relegated, Best Demolition has signed up to sponsor Blue Square Bet Premier side Eastbourne Borough Football Club in a five-figure deal that takes the agreement to a third year.

“I am delighted with the renewed sponsorship and to be working with Best Demolition for another season,” says Boro’s commercial manager Lorna Gosling.

Mark Hodgson, contracts director for Best Demoliton, added: “We are now very pleased to have been able to extend the sponsorship for another year. This has been a difficult season but we believe in the club and wanted to show our continued support.”

It is tempting to suggest that, given its demolition connections, Eastbourne Borough could become our new favourite “other” team. But if West Ham carry on playing the way they have, it’s only a matter of time before the two are playing against each other.

Read more here.

Upgraded monitoring system affords improved asbestos detection performance.

Electronic asbestos counter specialist SMH Products is claiming improved detection and measurement of hazardous airborne fibre particles during site demolition and clearance using its upgraded Harley Scientific Fibrecheck system.

The Harley Scientific Fibrecheck can be used to quickly and accurately assess the ambient air-borne levels of fibrous hazards, in particular asbestos and other man-made mineral fibres, during the strip-out of buildings and industrial complexes.

The upgraded instrument draws air in through a front inlet at a rate of two litres per minute before it goes through a cyclone filter to remove excessively large particles, which are caught in a dirt trap. The sampled air is then passed into the optics module where precision laser technology is used to detect and measure the size of any respiratory airborne particles or fibres.

Harley Scientific Fibrecheck is capable of measuring several fibre types including serpentines, amphiboles, vitreous, organic and ferrous and can detect particles with a diameter as low as 0.2µ (typ) and a minimum resolvable fibre aspect ratio of 1:3 (typ).

The instrument can be used for a wide range of hazardous material removal and disposal applications in the power generation, oil and gas, petrochemical manufacturing, and industrial process sectors. It is ideal for use by demolition and emergency services as the machine gives an immediate readout of airborne fibres.

Typically, it can be used during asbestos removal contracts to detect fibre concentrations outside and inside the working areas and confirm whether leakages are occurring in adjacent sections. It can also be used to check that a site is free of contaminates once refurbishment work has been completed.

It can also be deployed to ascertain whether accidental exposure to fibrous airborne particles has occurred and that locations are once again safe for normal use, especial during and after fires.

The instrument is easy-to-use and can be operated by anyone using the frontal keypad and following the instructions shown on the built-in 20 character, four line LCD display screen.

This shows the tests results in an easy-to-understand format, demonstrating the number of particles processed and the result of the calculation of the cumulative fibre concentration in terms of fibres/ml of air – concentrations as low as 0.001 fibres/ml can be shown.

Sample times can be set from one minute to up to nine hours while the start-up time can be delayed by over four days if required depending on specific user requirements.

Harley Scientific Fibrecheck can be easily transported to site in an impact and water resistant protective case, which can accommodate a range of accessories including sample tubes, a portable printer, connector leads and a lightweight rechargeable battery which provides up to 10 hours of operating power between charges.

Onsite prints outs can be provided showing the fibre level and particle count for the entire length of the test period. Run references and the serial number of the Fibrecheck in use are also included with every print out for improved data recording and quality assessment purposes.

Manufacturer SMH Products can be contacted here.

Worker’s condition described as serious following Manchester accident.

According to reports from leading UK construction news portal Construction Enquirer, a demolition vehicle driver is being treated in hospital for serious leg injuries after a concrete block fell on him in Greater Manchester yesterday.

The 30-year-old man was in the vehicle’s cab near Lancashire County Cricket Club on Brian Statham Way, Old Trafford, when he was hit on Tuesday afternoon.

He was cut free by fire crews and taken to Manchester Royal Infirmary where his condition is described as “serious”.

Read more here or here.

GEC close to decision on company to demolish former weapons factory.

In the coming weeks, Bridgeport residents will see large equipment invade the former Remington Arms site. And by the end of 2012, the 95-year-old building where weapons were manufactured during World War I will no longer sit at the foot of Seaview Avenue.

Precious metals, like copper, were removed months ago from both the two-story power house and the main 1.3 million-square-foot five-story building, along with over 70,000 light bulbs.

The power house will be the first structure to come down. That part of the process will likely take most of the summer, while each of the 13 interconnected structures will take about a month to bring down.

Although a company has not yet been chosen to do the work, the General Electric Co., which owns the complex, has narrowed the field to four and will soon be announcing its pick. “They can work around the clock, year round,” said Marian Whiteman, environmental remediation counsel for GE. “The goal is to get it done as quickly as they can.”

Read more here.

Man rescued with jaws of life on site accused of dumping waste into Gulf.

The demolition of Galveston’s historic Flagship Hotel took a dire turn when a section of the building collapsed yesterday afternoon, trapping and seriously injuring a worker.

The worker had to be rescued with a Jaws of Life device and suffered life-threatening injuries. The worker was rushed to a hospital.

Flagship’s demolition has been star crossed even before this incident, with video surfacing showing chunks of debris from the hotel getting thrown into the Gulf.

Read more here.

Texas demolition giant puts its weight behind road material reclamation drive.

Cherry, the Houston-based recycling and demolition company, is making it easier and cheaper for road crews to recycle asphalt roadway material by bringing its fractionating equipment to their job sites. Once in place, the portable processing equipment fractionates asphalt roadway material into Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) for use in hot mix asphalt.

By fractionating RAP at the job site, contractors save time and transportation costs because asphalt material doesn’t need to be trucked to another location for processing. The portable equipment fractionates asphalt material to a guaranteed size—1/2-inch to smaller—that can be immediately used in making hot mix asphalt for new roadways.

According to Wesley Guidry, division manager for Cherry’s portable equipment, fractionated RAP can comprise up to 25 percent of hot mix asphalt. This reduces the amount of virgin materials and oil needed for the finished product. And, it results in a lower finished product price.

“Crews that recycle by using fractionated RAP also are helping preserve the environment by reducing the amount of asphalt material that is dumped in landfills,” Guidry explained.

Cherry’s portable fractionating equipment is capable of producing between 800 to 1,000 tons of RAP per day and can be mobilized to job sites throughout Texas and Louisiana.

According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), using recycled highway materials in pavement construction preserves the natural environment, reduces waste and provides a cost effective material for constructing highways. Specifically, the FHWA promotes the use of RAP because it can have the greatest economical, environmental and engineering impact in pavement recycling.