Lucky escape for excavator operator as machine falls into basement.
One of the key instructions issued to excavator operators on any construction or demolition site is “beware of unseen basements and underground voids”. But, as this video courtesy of our friends at The Construction Index proves, it is an instruction that isn’t always heeded, even after the operator has tried unsuccessfully to smash the entrance to the basement.
Demolition’s willingness to say one thing and then do another knows no bounds.
Back at the end of January, we roundly applauded the stance taken by TRC Environmental Corp. amidst the low bidding and undercutting surrounding the contract to demolish the Holly Street Power Plant. At that time, the company – the preferred bidder on the project despite its $24.9 million bid being the second highest of the six submitted proposals – was quoted as saying “Don’t ask why we’re so expensive; ask why our competitors are so cheap…”
Almost exactly two months later, however, and that stance appears to have wavered somewhat as submitted a revised proposal that now prices the job at less than half its original submission.
TRC officials would not explain how the company was able to cut its bid so drastically, but said in a statement that it has “steadfast confidence that the proposal submitted to the city fully satisfies” the bid requirements.
“This is a complex process, and we believe that we offer the best strategic plan and the best value to the city in decommissioning the Holly Power Plant,” said the statement from Mike Holder, project manager at TRC Environmental.
Read more here.
Stay of execution for former ICi headquarters.
The on/off plans to demolish the derelict Billingham House have been put on hold.
Bizzy B, the owners of the dilapidated former ICI headquarters, and Stockton Council went to London’s High Court yesterday, where Bizzy B was seeking an injunction to halt the council’s plans to pull down the eyesore building.
Stockton Council took control of the dangerous building last year and planned to press ahead with its demolition. But Bizzy B had in the meantime signed an agreement with Python Properties, who planned to invest £5m and bring it back into use.
By contrast, under the council’s proposals it would cost taxpayers around £500,000 to carry out the demolition work – though the council would seek to recoup these costs from Bizzy B.
Yesterday, as the court was due to look at the case, Bizzy B and Stockton Council reached an agreement to voluntarily hold off demolition until the outcome of a judicial review. The date for a hearing has now been set for May 10.
Read more here.
New Zealand contractor blasts government’s knee-jerk reaction to Christchurch quake.
A Christchurch contractor has dubbed the process for demolishing earthquake-damaged buildings a “train wreck”.
Barry Foster, of Barry Foster Contracting, said his firm had arranged to “deconstruct” the old flour silo in Addington before Civil Defence national controller John Hamilton approved its demolition.
Hamilton has defended the demolition, saying Urban Search and Rescue engineers deemed the Lincoln Rd building a threat to nearby businesses and that it could not be stabilised within a reasonable time.
Foster said the firm had taken in its own engineers, who said that while the brick veneer of the building, already partly collapsed, was unsafe, the structure would be sound once the veneer was stripped away.
The firm had planned to save the estimated 450 cubic metres of imported Oregon timber from the building, as well as the machinery, which was about 150 years old, he said.
“Why are these people going in and wrecking everything? I just don’t understand,” he said. “Im not a greenie or anything like that. It’s terrible to see this s… going on. I’ve got a plan in place to save a lot of stuff.”
Read more here.
Coastal Demolition accused of demolition without permit at Lobeco plant.
Asbestos remains at the site of a former Lobeco industrial plant, but it poses no public-health or environmental threat, according to a state health and environmental agency.
The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control findings from earlier this month came after environmental concerns prompted Beaufort County officials to halt demolition of the former chemical plant in January.
Some residents had also expressed concern that recent demolition activities disturbed asbestos, DHEC spokesman Adam Myrick said.
“That’s not the case,” Myrick said. “We wanted to get this word out to the community.”Coastal Demolition and Construction of Tampa, Fla., was issued a stop-work order Jan. 18 after Beaufort County officials discovered the company, which purchased the site in 2009, was tearing down the ArrMaz Custom Chemical plant building on John Meeks Way without the necessary permits, county administrator Gary Kubic said at the time.
In June 2009, DHEC staff found that Coastal Demolition and Construction had demolished and salvaged pieces of the site without a proper license, according to the community update.
DHEC then found in November 2009 that floor tile and adhesive containing asbestos had been improperly removed from a structure and stored on site, according to the community update. In December of that year, DHEC authorized the broken floor tile and adhesive to be removed to a permitted landfill in December 2009.
Several other structures were demolished on the site between March and June 2010. In February, DHEC visited the property and found the only asbestos still remaining on-site was in pipe insulation from a former maintenance shop and boiler house. The structure is still intact.
Coastal Demolition has applied for demolition permits for the remainder of the tank farm and reactor building.
Those permits have not been issued, Myrick said.
“We are awaiting the additional asbestos sampling in the tank farm area,” Myrick said in an e-mail. “Also, if Coastal plans to remove the asbestos pipe insulation on the ground in the boiler house, they will need a permit and licensed abatement contractor for that too.”
Read more here.
Latest visit to Dutch demolition site finds three Liebherr machines.
Last week, our new-found YouTube friend Dutchurbanminer sent us a video of a Liebherr 944 high reach excavator working on the demolition of an old people’s home in The Hague. When he returned a few days later, that 944 had been joined by a second Liebherr.
And now, at the beginning of a new week, he’s been back and – lo and behold – there are now three Liebherr machines working side by side on the site.
This is either an example of precise equipment planning or these machines are now actually breeding!
New Zealand residents question validity of Christchurch demolition orders.
A Christchurch business owner was shocked yesterday when he learnt his central-city building had been demolished.
Peter Scalia, who ran Fortuna Books from Shands Emporium on Hereford St, said neither he nor the building owner or leaseholder had been warned of Sunday’s demolition.
“I want to know who authorised it and why we weren’t contacted. If they can demolish the building I was in without any notification, are they going to do it to other buildings?” he said.
Scalia registered as a central-city business owner last week to gain access to the building and retrieve essential items. However, he said he never heard from authorities.
“I did everything I knew to do. I am really surprised I didn’t even get called before they bowled it. If they had of given me five minutes in there, I could have grabbed my safe, my passport and other documents. Why was it demolished yesterday, why could it not have been tomorrow? I could have been in there today.”
Read more here.
Grant Mackay Demolition starts work on demolition of International Harvester plant.
For those of us of a certain age, the name International Harvester conjures memories of a simpler time; machines without cabs but with levers long enough to give the operator forearms like Popeye. Indeed, there was a time when – in Europe at least – the instantly recognisable IH logo was a symbol of construction equipment, not of the agricultural tractors that gave the company its name.
But like flower power, glam rock and Betamax video recorders, the name International Harvester has long since been consigned to the file marked “History”. But the demolition of the company’s former plant at Springfield, Ohio is still tinged with sadness.
The building was erected in 1882 to serve as the administrative offices for the Warder, Bushnell & Glessner Co., which joined with four other companies to form International Harvester in 1902.
An attempt by the Turner Foundation to save the building failed, but efforts by the city of Springfield and the Ohio Historic Preservation Office ensured that parts of the structure — the vault door, safe and 1882 date stone — would be preserved.
Crews started taking down structures on the site in August, with the last two demolished on Monday, said Joe Vendetti, vice president of Grant Mackay Demolition Co.
An estimated 14,000 tons of brick and 78,000 tons of concrete will have been reduced to rubble by the end of the project, Vendetti said.
Read more here
Stiff fines for two companies after man is killed by 31 tonne beam.
Construction Enquirer is reporting that two UK companies have been fined a total of £130,000 after a 43-year-old demolition worker was killed by a big concrete beam in Thurrock.
Gary Drinkald was working on a night demolition job to tear down a road bridge on the A1306, near Lakeside Shopping Centre, on April 6 2006 when he was crushed.
A 31 tonne concrete beam had been removed from the bridge and placed on the back of a low loader lorry, but chains securing it were removed from the crane before it had been secured to the low loader.
The beam then fell and crushed Drinkald, breaking 17 ribs and causing internal bleeding, which led to his death.
The Health and Safety Executive successfully prosecuted Chelmsford demolition contractor Micor, which employed Drinkald, and Crane and Transport Services from Kent, which was subcontracted to supervise the lifting procedure.
Read more here.
C&D Consultancy launches new training course to improve industry communication.
“What we’ve got here is, failure to communicate. Some men, you just can’t reach.”
This is a famous line from the classic 1967 Paul Newman movie, Cool Hand Luke. But it is also a phrase that could be used to describe many sectors of the notoriously insular demolition industry. Until now, that is.
That failure to communicate is being addressed in a new training course from C&D Consultancy, the consultancy owned by current Institute of Demolition Engineers’ John Woodward, one of the best-known communicators in the demolition business.
Woodward reports that the new course is aimed primarily at supervisors, office staff, managers and directors within the demolition environment and covers core skills such as active listening, understanding non-verbal communication, and improving communication skills. The course is also designed to demonstrate that the company is embracing the new requirements within local authority and UKCG pre-qualification processes.
The initial course will be held near Walsall in the Midlands on Friday 15th April 2011.
Further information can be found here.
