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.

Chemical contamination means remediation will continue long after the buildings are gone.

After four years of trying to sell its Albany plant, Merck & Co. officials say they will demolish the facilities on Radium Springs Road, restoring it to the green space it was prior to the plant’s construction nearly 60 years ago.

But Georgia state and federal officials say that Merck’s challenge to restore the land where it was before it started production in 1952 will continue long after the walls come down, as investigations and environmental cleanup efforts continue on the 1,000-acre site in southern Dougherty County.

Following inquiries by The Albany Herald, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the state’s Environmental Protection Division of the Department of Natural Resources (EPD) have released information relating to the Merck facility site at 3517 Radium Springs Road.

According to those two agencies and Merck officials, the former chemical manufacturer is currently remediating contaminated soil and groundwater on the Merck site that was exposed to various chemicals over the company’s history.

“During its many years of operation, Merck has had releases to the environment that have impacted soils and groundwater (the main constituents are toluene and methylene chloride). The investigation and some remediation that was required by the permit was ongoing prior to the facility’s decision to close, and will continue after demolition,” EPD Communications Director Kevin Chambers wrote.

Read more here.

Implosion drops Mohave Generating Station exhaust stack.

The 152 metre (500-foot) structure near the Colorado River in Laughlin, Nevada came down as part of the coal-fired power plant’s decommissioning process.

The plant opened in 1971 and generated 1,580 megawatts of electricity, enough to power appliances in about 395,000 homes at once.

It ceased operation in December 2005 after environmentalists sued over its pollution and it lost its fuel contract.

Video update shows a pair of Liebherr excavators in action in the Netherlands.

Yesterday, we brought you a video and some very sketchy details on a Liebherr 944 high reach excavator working in The Hague in the Netherlands. Thankfully, the man who shot that video dropped us a line and explained that the machine was owned and operated Dutch contractor Jan Knijnenburg and that the project involved the demolition of an old people’s home.

Well, not content with that, our new-found friend Pablo has been back and shot some more footage of the machine working, this time alongside its standard spec sister.

Photos capture demolition of South Pole research station entombed in 30 feet of ice.

In what is surely the most unique demolition project of its kind, engineers have imploded a former research station at the South Pole that has become entombed in more than 10 metres (30 feet) of snow and ice.

The Seabee construction battalion departed in January 1957, as drifting snow and ice quickly buried the buildings. Today, the entire facility is buried beneath the ice, having moved away from the geographic pole with the slow drift of the ice sheet.

But the surface above is unstable. In the last couple of years, several heavy machines have fallen through the snow. One Caterpillar Challenger broke through several stories into one of the IGY station buildings last season. The driver was unhurt.

Read the full, fascinating story here.

US contractor tells it like it really is.

“A man’s got to know his limitations“. So said that purveyor of diplomacy, Harry “Dirty Harry” Callahan in the movie Magnum Force.

Well, here at DemolitionNews, we certainly know our limitations. Despite writing about and for this industry for the best part of a quarter century, we will forever be outsiders looking in. We have never demolished anything other than the occasional pie, and are unlikely ever to do so. So, no matter how hard we try, we know that we are “for” rather than “of” the industry.

However, we would strongly urge readers to take two minutes to check out this blog post from Terrence O’Rourke of US contractor Champion Environmental Services Inc. This is written by someone on the inside of this business, and you will not read a more telling, informed and eloquent piece on the state of the demolition nation this year.