A demolition excavator has toppled over in Germany, injuring one person and crushing two cars.

Details are emerging of an excavator working on a Frankfurt demolition site that has flipped over, crushing two nearby cars and injuring a young woman.

Although the exact cause of the accident are not yet known, the operator of the 60 tonne machine is thought to be uninjured.

Read more (in German) here.

UK equipment giant to CESAR mark Hammermaster range.

JCB has stepped up the battle against equipment theft by announcing that seven models in its Hammermaster hydraulic breaker ranges are to get CESAR marking as standard. The move means JCB, which was the first major manufacturer to make CESAR standard on its construction range in 2007, is the only company to offer the anti-theft marking system on its breakers in the UK.

“This move is in direct response to our customers, who have asked us to come up with an effective anti-theft deterrent for their breakers. Theft of attachments is an ever-growing and often uninsurable problem for our customers that is having a big impact,” says Paul Hartshorn, director and general manager of JCB Attachments. “By registering the breakers with CESAR we are aligning our hammers with the JCB carrier machines which are already protected by CESAR and Datatag technology.”

Datatag has developed a special marking system to cope with the demanding application and working conditions that a hydraulic breaker will encounter. This includes a tamper evident triangular registration plate, with a unique number for each breaker. Radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders are installed on the hammer, along with uniquely numbered ultra-destruct labels with additional covert marking.

“We wanted to ensure that we had a durable security marking solution and so we developed the new system in conjunction with leading hirer Clee Hill Plant,” says Chris Harrison, Datatag’s Sales Director. “We have had a security system working on Clee Hill breakers for over a year and so we’re confident about the durability of the CESAR breaker system.”
JCB Attachments offers a range of 15 hydraulic breakers, to suit its full line of minis, JS excavators, skid steers and backhoe loaders. CESAR will initially be offered on the HM100, HM100Q, HM140, HM140Q, HM166Q, HM266Q and the HM386Q in response to specific customer request. Additional models may be added at a later date to meet customer demand.

Metal and Waste found guilty of exposing workers to lead poisoning.

An Edmonton-based recycling company has been fined for failing to protect employees working with lead.

Metal and Waste Recycling Ltd, of Albert Works, Kenninghall Rd, Edmonton had bought and was stripping some lead-sheathed copper cabling from British Telecom (BT) after the network began to be changed from copper to fibre optic cable.

An investigation carried out by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that between October 2008 and July 2009, more than 90 workers – most of whom were Romanian – were significantly exposed to lead as a result of this process.

HSE inspectors visited the site in April 2009 after an employee complained about insufficient protection when working with lead. During the site visit, HSE found nothing had been done to reduce lead exposure, with inadequate ventilation, face masks or respiratory equipment available.

It also found that although gloves were provided by the company, workers wore their own clothes, potentially spreading lead to other people and their own homes when they left work. Metal and Waste Recycling Ltd had not carried out blood tests or other health checks which are legally required when working with lead.

Read more here.

An intriguing alternative to costly brick lifting equipment.

As any demolition contractor will tell you, there’s money in bricks. That is why they go to so much time and effort, salvaging, cleaning and storing them for ultimate resale or reuse.

Of course, the salvage of bricks itself comes at a cost. YOu need expensive equipment to move large quantities of bricks about the place; and any personnel involved in the process will also require costly personal protective equipment and the like.

Or will they? Well we thought so until we stumbled across this video of a guy who – not surprisingly – has earned himself the nickname Brick Head.

And no, before any demolition or recycling companies ask, we don’t have his telephone number!

Cook up a suitable caption for the photo below and bag yourself some goodies

A large contingent of the world’s demolition and construction equipment industry descended upon Paris last week for the massive Intermat show. Sadly, it appears that at least one familiar face failed to make it back.

The sales team from Dig A Crusher had gathered to view the world’s largest carrier-mounted crusher bucket from its Italian supplier, MB Crusher; a 10 tonne beast of a bucket designed for use with excavators in the 70 tonne operating weight class and which boasts a crusher output of around 240 tonnes/hour.

Unfortunately, as you will see from the photo below, one of the Dig A Crusher crew – possibly through a mix of excitement and cheap local wine – got just a little too close to the 1,500 x 700 mm jaw opening.

Rather than offering our condolences to our buddy Sean Heron at the loss of one of his team, we have decided to turn his loss into your gain and are offering a scale model Liebherr TL 435-13 telehandler and a branded Dig A Crusher jacket to the person that comes up with – in our opinion – the funniest caption.

To enter, just hit the Comments button below and let us have your suggestion.

The competition will close on 1 May 2012.

Footage captures final weeks of hospital made famous by Princess Diana.

From our buddies at DDS Demolition, this time-lapse video captures the demolition of the Mildmay Mission Hospital; the whole project condensed to a two minute video. Mildmay Hospital was the UK’s last mission hospital. It was the facility in which Britain’s first AIDS victims were cared for, and the location in which Princess Diana famously shook the hand of an AIDS victim at the height of public panic.

The Mildmay Charity were granted planning to redevelop the site into a more modern facility that better suited it’s needs.

Man injured after excavator falls into unseen void.

A worker was taken to hospital this morning when the excavator he was driving flipped after hitting a hole at a demolition site in Virginia.

Capt. Mike Hicks with the Norfolk Fire Department told WAVY.com the incident occurred in the 200 block of North Military Highway before 9:45 a.m. when crews originally received a call of a structure collapse with individuals trapped.

Once crews arrived on scene, they found an employee with a demolition company trapped inside the excavator. The driver was moving across some rubble when the rubble fell into a small hole. The driver then struck the hole and flipped the excavator, Hicks said.

Read more here.

Coleman and Company is actively seeking site managers and supervisors

Coleman and Company, one of the UK’s Top 10 demolition contractors, is seeking site managers and supervisors as it maintains its impressive growth curve.

The company has just posted details of these positions on our sister website, Demolition-Jobs.co.uk.

Applicants should possess:

• CSCS Site Managers card
• CCDO demolition supervisor card
• SMSTS Certificate.

For further details, click here.

Newspaper investigation reveals depth of Mob influence on prestigious university project.

In the two years since Columbia University began work on its controversial West Harlem campus expansion, the Ivy League institution has engaged the services of a slew of contractors with checkered records, the Daily News has learned.

One firm was implicated in a bid-fraud scheme at a Brooklyn hospital, and two were cited in bribery investigations. That’s in addition to Breeze National, the mob-linked demolition company handling the jobs in which two workers have been killed.

Columbia says on its website it is the biggest client of Brooklyn-based Eagle Two Construction, owned by Roxanne Tzitzikalakis, whose father Demetrios Tzitzikalakis pleaded guilty to grand larceny and falsifying business records for bilking the city out of cash at his former company, Foundation Construction Consultants.

State controller Thomas DiNapoli found in an audit last week that the ex-con father plays an active role in running the company — and that Eagle won six contracts at SUNY Downstate Medical Center where forged bids or bids from affiliates posing as competitors were submitted.

After the Daily News inquired about the allegations against Eagle, Columbia spokeswoman Victoria Benitez said the firm has been suspended from consideration for contracts, pending the outcome of DiNapoli’s investigation.

Utility work on Columbia’s expansion project has been contracted to Felix Associates and MFM, which records show share a Westchester address and officers. Felix was identified by Con Edison as the firm accused of bribing 11 Con Ed supervisors, who were arrested in 2009 for demanding more than $1 million plus goodies like Giants tickets in return for letting the company jack up costs.

Other demolition work on the expansion project is being handled by Par Environmental. The Suffern, N.Y., firm, then known as Par Wrecking, was cited in a 2008 federal indictment for paying $35,000 to a Gambino crime family associate to allow them to ignore labor agreements on a Newark garage demolition.

Read more here.

Controlled explosion drops cooling towers and stack at former ICI works.

Two towers and a concrete stack at the former ICI Wilton site in Redcar, North Yorkshire, have been brought to the ground in a controlled demolition.

The work took place at 11:30 BST on the former Nylon Works at the Wilton International site and was completed safely and successfully.