DemolitionNews throws open the doors to its photo archive.

Every time there’s a major industry event and each time we visit a demolition site, we gather hundreds (or thousands) of photographs which, until now, we have locked away in the electronic dungeon beneath Demolition News Towers. Until now.

But in the interest of openness, caring and sharing, we have decided to open up a new public account on the photo sharing website Flickr to allow DemolitionNews readers to view, comment on and even use our photo archive.

So far, we have uploaded photos from the first NFDC Demolition Day, the recent NFDC annual general meeting, the 2010 IDE annual general meeting, the recent IDE Spring Seminar, and our recent trip to Las Vegas for the ConExpo 2011 exhibition.

We will be adding more photos over the coming days and weeks and will make a point of adding all the photos from our site visits from now on.

So please click here to take a browse and to see if our camera picked you out in a crowd.

Residents push for traditional demolition methods amidst mini quake concern.

New Zealand’s Civil Defence is considering using explosives to demolish the earthquake-hit Hotel Grand Chancellor despite concerns it could cause a “mini-earthquake”, damaging nearby buildings.

Tenders to demolish the 27-storey Cashel St building closed yesterday, with at least four companies submitting proposals to bring it down by “implosion” or using a crane.

Civil Defence national controller John Hamilton said no decision had been made to use explosives, but there was a risk that surrounding buildings could be damaged.

“A controlled explosion will be swift, but the counter-argument is there is a risk of collateral damage,” he said. “There is a risk with both methods.”

The Copthorne Hotel in Durham St and the Harcourts building in Madras St fell into a similar category, requiring demolition to reopen parts of the city but with potential for damage to surrounding buildings, he said. He could not provide a timetable for when any of them would be demolished because it would ultimately be a decision for building owners and insurers.

A building industry source said Civil Defence’s critical-building team was leaning towards using explosives, and he was worried about potential damage to surrounding buildings. “They are very excited about blowing it up.”

He said nearby building owners were pushing for a more traditional demolition.

Read more here.

Waste management arm of US demolition giant falls victim to industry-wide recession.

The solid waste management arm of the Bayonne-based demolition giant Nacirema Industries has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Nacirema Industries, located at 211 West Fifth St., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January with debts of $11.9 million to creditors, according to papers filed with US Bankruptcy Court in Newark.

Nacirema Industries is a subsidiary of Nacirema Group, which has not filed for bankruptcy.

The 11.9 million owed to creditors includes $7.9 million in secure loans to seven banks and finance companies for snow plows and solid waste containers and $4 million in unsecured loans to 165 creditors, including credit card companies, vendors, union pension and trust funds, according to court documents.

In addition, Nacirema Industries owes $245,000 in state taxes to New Jersey and $79,000 to the State of New York DMV Traffic Violations plea unit, court documents say.

The company also owes the New Jersey State Treasury $152,000 of a $375,000 settlement for fines levied by the Hudson County Improvement Authority for being “habitually out of compliance” from 2007 through early 2008 with solid waste transportation regulations, said Michael Walker, the Hudson Regional Health Commission program coordinator for solid waste management.

Read more here.

Crushers hard at work on development of stadia for 2014 World Cup.

Here at DemolitionNews Towers, we receive dozens of press releases each and every day, some of which make it onto our hallowed pages, and a good many that – for one reason or another – don’t.

So what makes a good press release? Well, if it’s easy to read, technical and accompanied by a decent photograph, you’re certainly in with a shout. But the odds of it being run increase exponentially if it manages to combine our dual loves of demolition and football.

So when thoe fine folks at Powerscreen sent us news that their crushers are playing a key role in the development work on stadiums for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil, we were sold.

Construction work has already begun in Cuiabá, Salvador and Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where Powerscreen Metrotrak and XA400S models are crushing demolition waste to produce materials for new stadiums and roads. According to Ayres de Azevedo Barreto from the contractor ‘Detronic Construction,’ “one of the contracts was scheduled to take six months, but the job was concluded in just four due to the high capacity and performance of Powerscreen’s tracked crushers.”

The recycling of construction and demolition waste is being treated as a high priority following the adoption of national solid waste policy legislation in 2010. This law assigns shared responsibility for waste management between companies and public authorities. The Brazilian government has said that recycled materials will contribute to a forecast US$104 billion in increased economic activity surrounding the 2014 World Cup, meaning there is considerable room for growth in the sector.

Famous Philadelphia bubble gum factory to be demolished this week.

The Swell bubble gum factory soon will be no more. The longtime landmark is scheduled for demolition Wednesday, with a final farewell celebration at 11 am.

Board of Commissioners President Bill Wechsler, Seventh Ward Commissioner Jim McGarrity, Philadelphia YMCA President and CEO John Flynn, and other township officials will be on hand to say goodbye to the 18,850 square metre (200,000-square-foot) facility that for 55 years produced popular confections such as Swell bubble gum, El Bubble gum cigars, Cry Baby extra sour gum, Gold Rocks Nugget Bubble Gum and Joe Blo Giant bubble gum before closing its doors in 2003.

The factory became idle after Philadelphia Chewing Gum Corp. sold the business to Concord Confections.

YMCA officials plan to construct a 6,500 square metre (70,000-square-foot), state-of-the-art facility on the factory footprint, complete with two-story atrium lobby, wellness center, three swimming pools, oversized gym, child/family center, group exercise studios and parking area. The Y anticipates serving more than 20,000 area residents and says it will provide 150 new permanent jobs. Grand opening is slated for spring 2013, Flynn said.

Read more here.

Demolition of iconic smokestack at Michigan State stokes backlash

A visual icon at Michigan State University is scheduled for demolition this summer, tearing a rift in the campus community.

The MSC smokestack, which has served as a guiding landmark for disoriented students on the campus since its construction in 1948, is being torn down because the tower is deteriorating and runs the risk of falling, the university said.

“Although I understand and even agree with the reasons for the destruction of the MSC smokestack, I’m sure I’ll tear up the first time I ride my bike on Shaw Lane and notice that it’s missing,” said Emily Syrja, a junior who said she was inspired to attend the university by her grandmother, a 1952 graduate of the then-called Michigan State College.

The 70 metre (230-foot) tall tower, built as an addition to the Shaw Lane Power Plant near Spartan Stadium, features the letters “MSC” along the side in white bricks. The school changed its name in 1955.

The plant was shut down in 1975 when it could no longer handle the power needs of the school and the smokestack has fallen into disrepair.

Recent inspections found that the mortar joints in the tower’s top 35 feet have deteriorated and run the risk of falling down, MSU spokesman Kent Cassella said in a statement. A wire cage was installed around the top to keep the bricks anchored, and a fence has been placed 150 feet around the base of the tower for safety.

Read more here.

Campaigners criticise plan to demolish part of listed London building to create public courtyard.

Just days after a landmark case that looks set to rewrite planning rules for UK demolition, conservationists have reacted angrily over plans to demolish an auction room to the rear of 20 Hanover Square in the heart of London’s Mayfair.

The Victorian Society said the structure was of “outstanding significance” and urged the council to reject the application. The council said it cannot comment or it may prejudice the hearing.

Heloise Brown, conservation adviser for the Victorian Society, said: “20 Hanover Square is recognised as being of outstanding national significance and the auction room at the rear is an interesting and well-designed piece of architecture that reflects the changing use of the building.

“The developer has an obligation to provide public benefit from this scheme but this must not be fulfilled by destroying part of a Grade II listed building, particularly as there is already a large open space just metres away in Hanover Square.”

Read more here.

City undercuts demolition professionals to win contract to demolish “Ol’ Stinky”

Okaloosa County will use its own crews to demolish the old Garnier’s wastewater treatment plant on Essex Road in Ocean City. Commissioners unanimously approved the in-house project earlier this week.

“These are tough budgetary times,” Water and Sewer Director Jeff Littrell told commissioners. “We believe we can go in there and pull it off for about half (the cost).”

Littrell said his crews can dismantle the plant for about $750,000. The county had budgeted about $1.5 million for a private contractor to do the job. The cost of the demolition should be offset significantly by selling recyclable material at the plant, including large amounts of concrete, stainless steel, copper and aluminum.

“We’re going to make this as green and sustainable a project as possible,” Littrell said. “We’re going to try and salvage and recycle everything.”

Commissioner Dave Parisot said he is concerned about the safety of county employees. “This type of demolition is a new task that we haven’t done,” he said. “Safety is going to be paramount. … We need to make sure our people are protected. There’s a great potential for some falls out there.”

Read more here.

Plans are already underway to decommission the tsunami-swamped Fukushima plant.

Hydrogen explosions. High levels of radiation. Thousands of gallons of contaminated water dumped into the sea. With the drumbeat of bad news, including another powerful aftershock on Thursday, it will take months, if not years, to stabilise the reactors and spent fuel pools that were damaged in last month’s earthquake and tsunami at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant.

Yet it is not too soon for a team of engineers from Japan and the United States to begin working on the thorny task of how to dismantle the reactors, four of which are so badly damaged that the plant’s operator has said they will be scrapped.

Already, dozens of engineers from Toshiba – which helped build four of the plant’s reactors – have been joined by experts from the United States to prepare for the decommissioning work, a job so big that the planning needs to start now, in parallel with the efforts to contain the crisis.

The team includes experts from Westinghouse, whose majority owner is Toshiba; Shaw Power Group, a civil engineering firm; and the Babcock & Wilcox Company, an energy technology and services company, one of whose specialties is the disposal of hazardous materials.

The plans to take apart the reactors are complicated not only by the volatility of the situation but also by the uncertainty about the reactors’ condition once they finally cool. No one has ever decommissioned four damaged reactors at one power plant, let alone reactors rocked by a powerful earthquake and then swamped by a tsunami.

In fact, no Japanese nuclear power plant has ever been entirely decommissioned, which is one reason Westinghouse and Babcock & Wilcox – companies that helped shut down the damaged reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania after the accident there in 1979 – have joined the effort.

Read more here.

Date set to remove wireless towers that have halted hotel demolition.

The Verizon Wireless cell phone towers that have stymied demolition of the former Executive Inn parking garage are slated to be removed on April 15.

Demolition of the structure, which must be removed to make way for a new hotel, was originally scheduled for mid-March.

Thursday, the city public works board voted unanimously to allow Verizon to install a temporary cell site on city property off Waterworks Road. The company will lease the space temporarily for $2,000 a month, according to Ed Zeimer, executive director of the city department of transportation.

The towers have been a thorn in the side of the planned Hyatt Place Hotel.

Local developer Martin Woodruff plans to build a 220-room, $30 million hotel in the place of the parking structure. The project will include underground parking for the hotel.

AT&T also had towers on the building, but removed them a week before the March demolition date. Verizon’s lingering equipment delayed the project to Monday.

Read more here.