Maylarch managing director named among 20 fittest directors.

A few weeks ago, I was in a demolition site canteen, awaiting arrival of my traditional “I’ll have a large portion of everything that is fried” breakfast when a guy beside me ordered a salad. I had barely recovered from the shock of a healthy demolition man when it was compounded when another enquired if they served green tea.

Now, to be honest, I had put this down to some single-site anomaly but we have just received news that this worrying trend may be spreading and, in fact, getting worse.

Nick Williamson, managing director of UK demolition contractor Maylarch (and pictured here on a leisurely London to Paris cycle ride in aid of Sobell House Hospice), has been named among the final 20 contenders in the Daily Telegraph’s search for the UK’s fittest director.

We’re currently awaiting more information and Nick’s reaction to this shock announcement but he is uncontactable at present; he’s probably out for a run or wrestling an alligator.

400+ dilapidated and abandoned buildings slated for demolition

The director general of Dubai Municipality, Hussain Nasser Lootah, has issued a directive to demolish more than 400 unlicensed, dilapidated and abandoned properties so that the remaining building stock complies with existing standards.

Once notified, owners of the buildings involved will be given six months to demolish, restore or complete construction of their properties.

The buildings in question have been labelled as dangerous, poorly maintained or abandoned, said Omar Mohammed Abdulrahman, the head of inspections at the municipality’s buildings department.

“This figure [400] is too high and that is why we must take immediate action,” said Mr Abdulrahman. Thorough inspections found some buildings too old and dangerous to the public and their health. Sometimes, crimes are happening in these buildings because doors are left open. They become unsafe and unclean.”

A committee of engineers formed by the buildings department will handle decisions about the fate of each building on the list after considering technical and aesthetic details on a case-by-case basis.

Owners whose buildings are on the list will be required to make payments into a fund intended to ensure implementation of the committee’s rulings. Owners will be allowed to rebuild on the land, provided strict guidelines are followed.

Read more here.

Time-lapse video of overnight bridge demolition in Arizona.

Arizona Department of Transportation crews tore down the old Marsh Station bridge, which has recently been replaced, along with the fire-damage Mescal Road overpass.

ADOT has released a time-lapse video showing their work at Marsh Station.

Mixed emotions as DuPage strip club is marked for demolition.

Chicago’s demolition crews won’t know whether to laugh or cry today at news that the Diamonds Gentlemen’s Club is to be demolished as part of a $38 million road-widening project.

On Monday, Judge John Elsner ruled to condemn the land where Diamonds Gentlemen’s Club resides, The Chicago Sun Times reports. The Illinois Department of Transportaion plans on expanding North Avenue at Powis Road, taking 5,500 square feet from the club’s land and part of the building.

At a recent hearing, club owners On Stage Productions claimed state officials didn’t show that seizing the land was necessary for the expansion and said the Diamond’s area was being unfairly focused on because it’s a strip club.

Eisner denied the arguments, stating there was no evidence to support the claims.

Read more here.

Man accused of damaging hotel to prevent heritage designation walks free.

It is not unusual for demolition contractors to punch holes in walls. What is unusual, however, is for those holes to be created to prevent a heritage designation that might have prevented a hotel’s demolition.

But that is the background to the story of a contractor in Canada who admitted he was paid to punch holes in the old Brunswick Hotel but was acquitted of fraud this morning.

Victor Ramos, 43, had been charged with defrauding Dan Dencev, who owned the hotel and currently owns the Richmond Hotel. Dencev had claimed he paid Ramos $20,000 to be general contractor to demolish the historic hotel.

Ramos said he was paid to punch holes in the walls the day before city council was to discuss possibly giving the building a heritage designation that would have stopped demolition.

Read more here.

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.