Brothers fined over accident that left worker with horrific injuries.

Alan Hind, from Corrie Common near Lockerbie, was helping to demolish an industrial building in Carlisle when he fell six metres to the concrete floor below. The 28-year-old’s sight, hearing and personality have been permanently affected.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Robert and Eric Murray following the incident at Watts Yard on London Road in Carlisle on 27 February 2008. Carlisle Crown Court heard that Robert Murray was in overall control of the project, and that his brother, Eric, was in charge of dismantling the building Mr Hind was working on.

In the fall, Alan Hind suffered 16 skull fractures, broke his jaw in three places, fractured his wrist, damaged a kidney and is now deaf in his right ear and blind in his left eye. Parts of his brain were so badly damaged that they had to be removed.

“Mr Hind is lucky to be alive following his fall, which could and should have been prevented. He sustained multiple injuries which will affect him for the rest of his life,” said David Charnock, HSE Construction Inspector in Cumbria. “Unfortunately neither Robert nor Eric Murray took the necessary safety precautions and Mr Hind suffered horrific injuries as a consequence. The workers they employed were casual labourers and did not have the skills or experience to work on industrial roofs. As this incident demonstrates, carrying out work at height can result in serious injury and even death if not properly planned. Steps must be taken to prevent people falling, and everyone involved in the work must be properly trained.”

Read the full story here.

Rhode Island Airport and contractors fined for violations at TF Green Airport.

Rhode Island Airport Corporation and its demolition contractors, O.R. Colan Associates of Florida, LLC and The Jones Payne Group, Inc., of Mass., have agreed to pay $25,000 for alleged violations of the federal Clean Air Act and National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Asbestos.

Jones Payne will pay the full amount of the $25,000 penalty for its failure to provide EPA with prior written notification of its intent to demolish 146 residences during a Noise Management Program and voluntary land acquisition at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, R.I.

Read more here.

Brazilian government sets date for Fonte Nova stadium implosion.

With the dust barely settled on the 2010 World Cup, soccer chiefs are already turning their attention to the 2014 tournament in Brazil. And in preparation, the Brazilian government has set the date for the implosion of Salvador’s Fonte Nova stadium.

Controlled Demolition Inc., the US-based explosives specialist charged with handling the implosion, will bring down the remaining parts of the former stadium on 29 August. The implosion sequence is anticipated to last approximately 17 seconds which, coincidentally, is the same time the French national team took to implode at the 2010 World Cup. The lower tier and part of the higher tier have already been demolished by mechanical means; the implosion will accelerate the removal of the remaining higher tier.

The old Fonte Nova has been closed since 2007, after the structure collapsed killing eight people.

Read more here.

Campaigners protest over eyesore on former Bowstring Bridge site.

A group of campaigners who failed to save a Leicester bridge from demolition in November 2009 have called the development site “an eyesore”.

Bowstring Bridge and a nearby pub in the city’s West End were dismantled to make way for a new leisure centre. De Montfort University have not yet submitted a planning application for the sporting facility, but say it is set to be filed by autumn 2010.

Leicester City Council say they have no definite plans for the remaining area. Derek Hollingworth from Leicester Civic Society is concerned about the visual progress taking place at the site. “You’ve got part of the viaduct still here, it’s covered in graffiti, you’ve got the site where the pub was and there’s still bricks here. Nothing’s happened; it’s just been cordoned off with some second-hand railing that came from Mill Lane and that’s it, that’s what we’ve got.”

Read full story here.

Quarter million dollars to remove 100 tonnes of burnt, contaminated corn?

About six truckloads of stored, wet and fire-scorched seed corn will add an estimated $175,000 to the cost of demolishing the flood-and-fire-damaged, former Sinclair meatpacking plant.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is paying for the demolition, now nearing completion, at a cost that could reach $15 million,Greg Eyerly, the city’s flood-recovery director, said Thursday.

Eyerly said he sees no reason why FEMA would not pay for the additional new cost related to the seed corn, which had been stored at the plant, though he said FEMA has not yet agreed to pay the cost.

The corn belongs to BFC Gas and Electric Co., which operates a gasification plant in southwest Cedar Rapids that burns, among other items, outdated seed corn.

Eyerly said about six truckloads of corn is now mingled with about 25,000 tons of asbestos-containing material at the demolition site.

Read the full story here.

Permit problems put overdue demolition works on indefinite suspension.

The demolition of the former Chrysler plant in Fenton has been suspended indefinitely.

News 4 has exclusively learned the St. Louis County Health Department shut the project down because the company doing the demolition did not have the proper permits.

There could be asbestos in the buildings which requires a 10 day waiting period to receive permits. The company doing the demolition only applied for permits Tuesday.

Read more here or view the video below.

With farmers bidding for demolition work, how does this industry safeguard its future?

Pardon me if this comes across as a bit of a rant but, frankly, I am angry; spitting feathers, foot-stamping, likely to tear someone a new one angry. I have just got off the phone from a good friend of ours, a US contractor of some repute, who has just been knocked back on a major contract comprising a significant degree of asbestos abatement with the following line from his would-be client:

“Well, you guys are a fairly big operation and will cost too much. We’re looking to local guys. There are a few farmers who have shown an interest”

I hardly know where to begin. Setting aside the fact that the unnamed client in question is apparently willing to risk inflicting Mesothelioma upon his fellow human beings in order to save a few dollars, what does this say about the public perception of the skill required to do demolition properly and safely?

Moreover, it is almost exactly a year since our audio interview with Ray Passeno and Mike Taylor of the US’ National Demolition Association (NDA) in which Taylor said he was well aware of the phenomenon of non-demolition companies – Bob’s Landscaping, as Taylor tagged them – bidding for and winning demolition work. And yet, non-demolition companies are continuing to make inroads into this business of ours.

So what can be done? Well, here in the UK, the National Federation of Demolition Contractors is embarking upon the first of a series of Demolition Day seminar events that are designed specifically to remind major UK clients, main contractors and local authorities why they should (a) use a professional demolition company and (b) why that company should be backed by a trade association that operates a rigid Code of Conduct and which actively audits its membership to ensure best practice.

But is this enough? I am not condoning protectionism here. Nor am I proposing that demolition workers go buy themselves a combine harvester and play farmers at their own game. But what demolition contractors do is highly technical and highly skilled. It requires training and considerable experience to do it properly. Indeed, there’s no difference between the training, skill and experience required to demolish a building containing asbestos than, say, fixing the brakes on a car or instaling a gas appliance in your home. So would this client be happy to hand over the keys to his house and car to a local farmer to save a few dollars?

The fact is that, despite its considerable advances, this industry is still perceived as a bunch of hairy-ass guys who knock stuff down or blow stuff up. With that kind of public perception, it’s little wonder that some country bumpkins can climb down off their tractor and steal the work from under the noses of genuine demolition contractors.

Have your say: We’d love to hear your views, whether it’s about work you’ve lost to a local restaurant owner or suggestions on how you believe this industry can safeguard what is rightfully ours. Please click here to join the discussion.

What will excavator manufacturer make of this video?

A raw video captures the initial demolition work at Lancaster, PA’s former Empire TV & Appliance. The demolition comes more than three months after the facade of the building collapsed into the 200 block of North Queen Street, toppling a tree and striking a passing Red Rose Transit Authority bus. About a quarter of the remaining building was deemed unsafe and pulled down that day.

A raw video from Lancaster Online captures the demolition works as they progress but we’d be interested to see what the manufacturer of the high reach excavator involved will make of this video that shows the machine being used to sideswipe the structure. If any Pennsylvania-based Komatsu dealers receive a complaint about excessive wear or cracked joints on a PC400 any time soon, the video below might give you a clue why.

Read more here.

Video captures works at Seattle’s Pier 48.

Crews have started demolishing a 11,000 square metre (120,000-square-foot) warehouse at Pier 48 on Seattle’s waterfront to make room for equipment and supplies during construction and replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

The $460,000 demolition project, which is more than 35 percent below WSDOT’s estimate of $750,000, is expected to take approximately four months to complete.

The pier sits on wood piles severely damaged by time, weather and marine organisms. The warehouse is unsafe and prohibitively expensive to maintain.

The contractor, R.W. Rhine, Inc. of Tacoma, will recycle approximately 50 percent of the demolished building. Recyclable materials include wood, metal siding and roofing.

Read more here or view the video below:

Tulsa-based company has been measuring up in Benwood.

Even though the blast date is still several months away, it is a contract that has been the subject of more than it’s fair share of controversy and contractual issues. But, according to local TV news channel WTRF7, the Bellaire Bridge is one step closer to getting demolished as inspections were underway Wednesday.

According to a representative from Delta Demolition, Dykon Explosive Demolition out of Tulsa was in Benwood taking measurements of the bridge for planning purposes and to determine how much the bridge will actually be exposed once it falls into the Ohio River.

No word as yet on what AED’s Eric Kelly has to say about this turn of events.