Reports suggest demolition works responsible for blast that killed 10.

The death toll from an explosion at a factory in eastern China now stands at 10 people, state-run Xinhua news agency said, citing a casualty count from local government officials.

At a news conference, officials in the city of Nanjing told reporters that more than 120 people had been hospitalized after a blast ripped through an abandoned plastics factory Wednesday morning. Fourteen of those hospitalized were critically injured, officials said. Workers were dismantling the factory when the explosion occurred.

A statement from the state Administration of Work Safety said the explosion came when a motorist started a car engine and ignited leaking gas. The administration says the gas leak occurred after a propylene pipeline was damaged by heavy machinery used to dismantle factory buildings. The damaged pipeline that had been funneling propylene to the factory has been shut down, it said.

According to Xinhua, the rescue headquarters says an excavator owned by Yangzhou Hongyuan Construction and Development Co., Ltd. hit the pipeline. The news agency also reports that the excavator operator has been held by police for questioning.

Read more here.

US company bags contract to dismantle Jose Cabrera power station.

Westinghouse Electric Co. said Wednesday that it was awarded a contract to dismantle a nuclear reactor in Spain.

The contract, awarded by the Spanish nuclear waste agency Empresa Nacional de Residuos Radiactivos, is for work at the Jose Cabrera Nuclear Power Station located 43 miles east of Spain. It is the second commercial reactor to be dismantled in Spain.

The Westinghouse contract covers dismantling and segmentation of the reactor vessel internals of the facility that operated for 38 years.

Read more here.

Catching up with Colin Hiscock as he blazes the trail towards re-employment.

Just over a week ago, we spoke to Colin Hiscock, one of the numerous demolition professionals impacted by the untimely demise of the UK’s Controlled Group.

That original podcast clearly struck a nerve as it has quickly become one of our most listened-to and downloaded episodes both here on DemolitionNews and over on iTunes.

When we last spoke to him, Colin was in the process of brushing up his CV, breaking out his interview suit, and weighing up his employment issues. A week on, we checked back to see how things are progressing:

Birmingham’s Stephenson Tower to be demolished in New Street refurbishment

A landmark Birmingham city centre tower block is set to be demolished to make way for the £600 million refurbishment of New Street Station.

Council housing chiefs confirmed that all remaining tenants of Stephenson Tower have moved out, leaving the way clear to knock down the 20-storey 1960s building. The block was the subject of a compulsory purchase order, allowing the city to buy all of the apartments and offer tenants alternative accommodation.

A date for clearance work to begin is yet to be set, but the tower is likely to be removed during the next year in time for phase one of the New Street Gateway scheme to be completed in 2012.

Members of the council cabinet have ordered final legal agreements with Network Rail to be drawn up, allowing main construction work at the railway station to get underway.

Read more here.

Houston-based contractor celebrates platinum level award.

Cherry Demolition, Inc. has won a national, platinum level STEP (Safety Training Evaluation Process) safety award from the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) organization.

The company was honored for the effectiveness of its overall safety program. ABC represents all specialties within the US construction industry and is comprised primarily of firms that work in industrial and commercial sectors. The organisation’s goal is to help its member companies continuously advance safety and training efforts to achieve a zero-incident workplace.

“We are quite pleased to be recognized with one of the highest safety awards given by ABC,” said Jay Marak, safety director for Cherry. “We take safety very seriously at Cherry. We are proud of our safety accomplishments, but we always strive for further improvement.”

Schwarzenegger leads demolition ceremony at beginning of hospital construction.

There was a time, during his movie career, when demolition work was carried out strictly by hand, often taking in people as well as buildings. But time marches on and Arnold Schwarzenegger, now Governor of California, now prefers to let other people and some heavy equipment take care of such matters as you can see below as Gov. Schwarzenegger participates in a demolition ceremony to make way for the construction of March Memorial Hospital, part of the March LifeCare project.

March LifeCare is a 557,400 square metre (6 million square foot), 95 hectare (236-acre) project being developed on surplus land of the former March Air Force Base. The project will include a hospital, medical office buildings, skilled nursing and ambulatory care facilities, wellness centers and other facilities. The project is expected to create 12,700 construction jobs and 7,200 full-time health care and other related jobs.

A closer look at the demolition of an English icon.

For several months now, we have been bringing you regular updates on the imminent and subsequently underway demolition of the “Get Carter” car park in the North East of England. However, it has occurred to us that while the building in question is iconic here in the UK, its “appeal might be a little less well known elsewhere.

So, together with Chris Dobson, health and safety manager at Thompsons of Prudhoe, the company responsible for the demolition, we have put together some more information that will hopefully illustrate why this ugly car park held such a place in British hearts. Chris takes up the story:

Gateshead’s Trinity Square car park (known by many as the Get Carter Car Park or Gateshead Multi Storey Car Park) was built from designs by Owen Luder (subsequently RIBA President) and opened in 1967, five years on from the drawing board. The building towers above Gateshead town centre (being the tallest building in the town centre by quite a margin).

Rather than becoming the centre of its community public opinion has called for its demolition (the building was listed in Britain’s top 10 worst buildings) and the car park is instead famous for the role it plays in the 1971 gangster movie “Get Carter”. Following decades of deterioration the decision was made to demolish the car park structure, the indoor market that lies below and associated properties on High Street, Ellison Street and the adjacent Trinity Square, allowing for a new city centre development.

Following an extensive pre-tender interview process and a successful tender submission Thompsons were awarded the contract. The project follows on from other major Gateshead/Newcastle demolition projects undertaken by Thompsons, and which include Tyne Tees Television, Westgate House (formerly listed as one of Britain’s top 10 worst buildings), Wellbar House, Eldon Square, City Library, Binns Department Store and the Majestic Ballrooms.

Thompsons’ newly-acquired Komatsu 750 super high reach excavator machine will assist the company’s Caterpillar 350 high reach machine to demolish the car park, working top to bottom in a pre-determined sequence. Demolitions commenced at 09:00 on 27/7/10 and will be captured by time lapse photography throughout.

And if you’re still wondering why this seemingly unremarkable car park holds such a place in British hearts, check out the video below and fast forward to the two minute mark.

Video provides object lesson in how NOT to cut a steel pipe.

Thanks to countless re-enactments in movies, TV programmes and cartoons, we’re all familiar with the image of the man sawing away at the tree branch upon which he is sat, seemingly oblivious to the fact that a few more saw strokes will see him plummet to the ground below.

Ever wondered what would happen if that classic joke was brought up to date, replacing the tree branch with a steel pipe, perhaps? And what about switching the saw for an oxy cutting torch? And, as a final flourish, a seemingly gravity-defying denouement?

Well, wonder no longer as the video below is what you’ve been waiting for. Our endless thanks to Robert Kulinski for alerting us to this (and so many other items).

Pipe Cutting Fail – Watch more Funny Videos

Controlled Demolition Inc claims reactor stack implosion success despite issues.

Success is notoriously difficult to define. For example, if you attempted to jump a ravine on a motorcycle but broke every bone in your body when you landed on the other side, would that be considered a success?

The reason we’re asking is that we’ve just read news about the implosion of a 53 metre (175 foot) high exhaust stack at Hanford’s K East Reactor that is described variously, as successful, safe, well-planned and well-executed. Nothing ambiguous there, right?

Well, that’s what we thought. So we read a bit further. And we found this:

The blast did take off more exterior siding on the reactor building than anticipated. But surveys found no structural damage.

The Transite panels are made of cement asbestos board, but no asbestos fiber was detected, Kehler said. The siding has been removed elsewhere at Hanford with excavators with no problems with asbestos fiber.

Personally, we think this speaks more to the management of expectations and less to the defining of the term success. But we’d love to hear what you think.

Read the full story here.

Manitoba demolition company ordered to halt all demolition work.

Avenue Construction, the demolition company connected to a July 13 asbestos scare has been ordered to halt all demolition work in the province until it can prove it has safe work procedures in place. The general stop work order issued to Avenue Construction by provincial investigators remained in effect as of July 19, says Jo-Anna Guerra, director of the Prevention Services and Partnerships Branch of Manitoba’s Workplace Safety and Health Division (WSHD) in Winnipeg.

That order and others followed the illegal demolition of the Transcona Meats building on Regent Avenue in Winnipeg’s east end, which was found to contain asbestos, Guerra reports. Avenue Construction began tearing down the one storey, nearly 2,000-square-foot building and attached shed at about 5 pm on July 13. It was demolished within roughly two hours, she adds.

Before noon on July 14, the WSHD received an anonymous tip concerning the “unsafe demolition of a building,” Guerra says. When investigators arrived at about 12:15 pm, they found that most of the debris had already been removed.

Read more here.