DemolitionNews brings you more details of last weekend’s implosion.

A few days ago, we brought you some raw footage of the implosion of a pair of headstocks at Nottingham’s Welbeck Coliery. Now, thanks to the team at Ron Hull Demolition, we can bring you some more information on the blast; together with an exclusive video.

According to Ron Hull Demolition, half the village of Meden Vale in Sherwood Forest and camera crews from four television stations turned out to see the team bring down the headstocks at the century old Welbeck Colliery.

The demolition was the climax of a six-month project to clear the site, one of the last two mines in Nottinghamshire, which ceased production a year ago.

The headstocks were taken down three seconds apart, falling to the right and left of the colliery power house, a listed building that remained live throughout the operation.

Ron Hull Demolition contracts director David Wall said: “It is actually the third explosive demolition that we have carried out on the site since we moved on last November but the headstocks coming down was clearly a particularly iconic moment – carried out in full view of the whole village.”

“The major issue the team had to deal with was the presence of the power house, a listed building that lay between the headstocks. I’m pleased to say that the operation went beautifully, with the towers going just where they were intended, leaving the power house completely untouched.”

Demolition application rejected due to lack of interest from housebuilders.

A bid to flatten a group of listed buildings in north Glasgow was thrown out amid claims of “inaction, indecision and incompetence”.

Scottish Enterprise had wanted to demolish 11 of the listed buildings which made up part of the former Ruchill Hospital. All it wanted to keep was the A Listed water tower, which is a landmark for a large part of the north of the city.

But councillors rejected the application – on the casting vote of planning committee chairman John Flanagan.

Publicly funded Scottish Enterprise bought the old hospital site in 1999, intending to sell it on for housing.
One developer pulled out because of the downturn in the housing market and since then there has no other interest.

A number of years ago, the development quango was given permission to bulldoze other listed buildings on the site provided the remainder were maintained. But little was done and the remaining buildings have deteriorated badly.

Derek McCrindle, Scottish Enterprise’s director of partnerships, told the meeting: “We thought as long as security was maintained the buildings would not deteriorate. This was naive. We continued to undertake basic maintenance but security was a huge problem and we were unable to keep up with the vandalism. The most basic elements of maintenance is extremely difficult because it is dangerous.”

Two years ago, experts estimated it would cost £16.5 million to restore the buildings.

Read more here.

June implosion will topple Florida Power & Light boilers and stacks.

The deconstruction of Florida Power & Light’s oil-fired power plant in Riviera Beach began in December and is expected to become more noticeable in June, when contractors are scheduled to set off explosives that will bring down the old plant’s boilers and 91 metre (300-foot) smokestacks.

FPL’s demolition contractor, Controlled Demolition, felled a similar FPL plant in Cape Canaveral with explosives in August.

Construction of the new Riviera Beach Next Generation Clean Energy Center is expected to start in the second quarter of 2012. The building contractor, Zachry Construction of San Antonio, is expected to hire about 200 of the 600 or so workers it will need for the job from South Florida, FPL spokesman Greg Brostowicz said.

Read more here.

Central-city tenants accuse Civil Defence of mistakenly condemning buildings.

The post-quake clean-up in Christchurch, is rapidly turning into an object lesson in emergency mismanagement. In its eagerness to make safe buildings damaged in the 22 February earthquake, New Zealand’s authorities are seemingly intent on making just about every mistake possible.

The government and local authorities were initially criticised for their haste in pulling down some buildings. The management of the demolition process was subsequently described as a “train wreck” by a prominent Kiwi contractor. Then there were accusations of thefts from site by demolition crews. But, just when it appears that a stable management plan has been set in place to demolish 128 unstable or unsafe structures, news emerges that at least three of these should not actually be on the list at all.

On Friday, Civil Defence released a list of 128 Christchurch buildings earmarked for probable demolition, but quickly admitted it had made a mistake with three buildings.

Yesterday, tenants and building owners questioned the list, with some saying their buildings had been incorrectly included.

Community Law Canterbury manager Paul O’Neill said he was “absolutely shocked” to learn the Madras St law centre had been recommended for demolition. The centre was red-stickered because of danger from an adjacent building, but had suffered no significant damage, he said. “They need to be very certain before they put a building on that list.”

After contacting the emergency management office, O’Neill said he was told a mistake had probably been made and the building was unlikely to be demolished. “For them not to contact us is inexcusable really.”

Walker Davey partner John Abbot said he found out only through the media that the BDO Spicer building on Victoria St, where his office was based, was earmarked for demolition. “I think some people have just pulled some names out of a hat.”

The news contradicted the last update from the building’s owner, who had said it could probably be repaired, Abbot said.

Read more here.

Oakland medical centre to meet explosive end later this week.

Friday marks the explosive end of the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital. Specialists will set charges to implode the crumbling, 11-storey concrete building Friday morning. Aside from the historic Club Knoll, the hospital is the last structures standing among the nearly 100 military homes, barracks, stores, gyms, warehouses and other mostly wood buildings that dotted the bucolic, tree-shaded base in the East Oakland hills.

The facility was formally decommissioned in 1996 during a wave of base closures around the country. After some fits and starts with another master developer, the federal government sold the 186-acre property at auction in 2005 to SunCal for $100.5 million. SunCal Oak Knoll LLC planned to build 960 homes, some affordable, most market rate, with 82,000 square feet of commercial space and 50 acres of trails and open space. The developer also promised to restore and reopen Club Knoll.

But then the bottom fell out. The company’s financial partner, Lehman Brothers, filed for bankruptcy in 2008, and SunCal did the same on 19 projects it shared with the failed financial giant, including Oak Knoll. Everything stopped except the court battles.

Workers who had started stripping the old buildings of asbestos to ready them for demolition left when SunCal could no longer pay them, leaving piles of trash behind. Vandals stripped wiring, pipes and every bit of metal from the structures, trespassers used them as party houses and their walls as graffiti canvasses. Drug dealers and squatters took over the hospital and other buildings for a time.

Oakland City Attorney John Russo ended up filing $6.7 million claims against Lehman Brothers in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York to get money to secure the property, abate the fire hazards, and finish remediation and demolition. The court released $3.7 million in November 2009, but it still took more than a year and another $1.7 million from the court to get it done.

Read more here.

How we fooled a magazine and highlighted the vagaries of the modern trade media

Trade magazines basically have three basic ways in which to make money. The most common way is to sell advertising space alongside their carefully-crafted editorial. The second is to sell the magazine, either via subscription or over-the-counter sales. The final, and least scrupulous method is to charge for printing contributed editorial. Some publications are totally transparent about this and sell space on the basis of it being an “advertorial”; others are less honest and charge instead for “colour separations”, the creation of print films that no-one has done this century.

Either way, the charging for advertorials or colour separations says a great deal about the credibility of the magazine and its content.

And, to prove that point, we can report that we have just received an email from a bi-monthly magazine with the catchy title Selfbuilder & Homemaker offering to run our press release on the theft of a Norwegian tower block for just £85.

Perhaps they’re in on the joke. But the fact that they’re offering to print an April Fool joke in an edition that isn’t even out yet makes us wonder if that’s the case. We’d hate to think that a paper-based publisher was merely trying to make a fast buck, regardless of the content.

Exclusive video of speech by outgoing NFDC president, David Darsey.

Just over a week ago, David Darsey’s two-year tenure as president of the National Federation of Demolition Contractors came to an end as he handed the reins over to the incoming president, Gary Bishop.

In this exclusive video, DemolitionNews brings you David Darsey’s final speech in his role as president.

In this second video from the same event, Darsey hands the chains of office to his successor Gary Bishop while William Sinclair becomes vice president and Marton Wilson is elected 2nd vice president:

Concern as old bridge tumbles and hits its new replacement.

Engineers in Seattle are evaluating damage to the new N.E. 12th Street bridge over Interstate 405 after a section of the old overpass, being demolished this weekend, unexpectedly shifted and fell into the new bridge.

Damage isn’t considered major, but further analysis will determine whether the south portion of the new bridge, which for now carries one lane of traffic in each direction, can reopen Monday at 5 a.m. as originally planned.

Analysis of today’s damage by engineers from the Washington State Department of Transportation and the contractor, Guy F. Atkinson Construction, LLC, is expected to be available Sunday.

Read more here.

Locals and former miners gather for dual headstock implosion.

Hundreds of people have watched the demolition of two Nottinghamshire headstocks.

They were part of Welbeck Colliery, which dates back to 1912 and only ended coal production last year.

Contractors incensed as city wins competitive bid with price 30% below break even.

Private demolition contractors say the city of Rock Hill is taking their business. Competition from the city, and a bad economy, are forcing them to sell equipment, lay off workers, and in one case, likely go out of business, contractors said.

They are upset the city won a $64,165 contract from Comporium to tear down the former King funeral home, the Hiers-Clarkson building and small garage. The demolition is the first step in developing Downtown East, a park and mixed-use development.

If contractors had submitted a no-profit bid for the project, it would have been between $98,000 and $100,000 to break even, they said.

City officials said their bid was based on years of estimating experience and using machines to tear down the buildings. Several contractors said they had budgeted for some manual demolition because of the proximity of the Hiers-Clarkson building to the historic Barnes home. The distance between the buildings was about four feet.

Comporium, which is partnering with the city to develop the park, owned the buildings. The company solicited bids and paid for the demolition.

Read more here.