Bid to raze middle school pleases school board, stuns fellow contractors.

Members of the North Fayette Board of Directors are undoubtedly patting themselves on the back today having secured a local middle school demolition bid so low that it’s undetectable to radar.

The board had apparently braced itself for a price in the $100,000 to $200,000 range, predictions that were borne out by initial bids ranging from $133,000 to $173,333. One further bid of $292,000 apparently came in from a contractor who has lived in a cave these past two years and was unaware of the recession and the US demolition industry’s apparent determination to render itself extinct.

And then along comes Kelly Demolition (in our mind’s eye whistling down the path, a happy smile on his face, possibly clicking his heels), slapping down a bid of $99,000 and leaving with the spoils.

Now, in the grand scheme of the US’ race to the bottom, undercutting your nearest rival by $33,000 on a $100,000 job is no big deal.

But Kelly wasn’t finished yet. Oh no siree Bob. Not content with hitting his competitors so far below the belt that many are now suffering from shin splints, Kelly then announces that he will get the work done a good couple of weeks ahead of schedule.

Unless he plans to use trained termites to carry out the demolition or has discovered a local waste repository that will pay him in gold bullion for every square yard of arisings he throws at them, this appears to be just another example of the US demolition sector’s race to the bottom.

Read more here.

Weather-permitting, stack will fall on 11 March.

Depending on the weather, the towering smoke stack at the Mohave Generating Station near Bullhead City is set to come down March 11.

The 40-year-old power plant in Laughlin, Nevada, was turned off 31 December 2005 and has been undergoing a decommissioning process since 2009.

Plant owner Southern California Edison said demolition crews will use charges to knock out lower sections of the 41-story stack to allow gravity to bring it down.

Bullhead City Mayor Jack Hakim said he hopes the implosion would not be performed on a windy day when debris could blow across the Colorado River into Arizona

Read more here.

Net closes on contractor with a checkered past.

Philip B. Schwab, a notorious 82-year-old demolition contractor, is expected to surrender today to face state tax charges.

Schwab, who began his career in the road-building business in upstate New York in the 1950s, has made and lost fortunes several times during his 60-year career in construction and demolition. Critics assailed a trail of deaths and injuries that followed him, including some involving family members. But developers and building owners often returned to him time and again, citing his skill and low prices.

A sealed indictment obtained by prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office charges Schwab with about a half-dozen counts in connection with what the authorities allege was his failure to file personal tax returns for several years, people briefed on the matter said.

In an interview, Schwab said he expected to be charged on Thursday with four felonies and two misdemeanors for failing to file. “They say I owe taxes,” he said. “I say I don’t owe any money.” Schwab said the prosecutors had offered to settle the case for $40,000, but he had refused.

Schwab said he believed that the tax investigation began during a criminal inquiry by prosecutors from the district attorney’s office into the deaths of two firefighters during a blaze at the former Deutsche Bank headquarters in 2007. That investigation also focused on how the contract for the demolition of the building had been awarded and included an examination of spending by contractors on the job.

Schwab said that he had served as a consultant to estimate the cost of the project for several people before the bids were entered and that checks he cashed had come to the attention of the prosecutors.

Schwab was born during the Great Depression in Buffalo, where his grandfather Frank X. Schwab had once served as mayor. After dropping out of high school, he went into business for himself. His company rapidly grew into the largest road-building contractor in the city.

At his peak, Schwab controlled seven small banks; a casino in Reno, Nev.; and much of Hilton Head Island, S.C. But his empire collapsed in bankruptcy. He was indicted in 1988 and convicted along with dozens of demolition executives in New York City for bribing a federal environmental protection inspector to ignore asbestos removal laws.

You can read more on the current court case here but we would also strongly recommend this piece, also from the New York Times, which provides an even greater insight.

Breaking News – Demolition claims another victim

Authorities say a worker has died in an accident on the old Mississippi River Bridge between Mississippi and Arkansas.

The old bridge between Greenville, Mississippi and Lake Village, Arkansas is being dismantled after a new, bigger bridge was built about a half-mile up river. Officials said the worker died Wednesday.

Jacqueline Fourchy, a spokesman with Granite Construction, which has the demolition contract, said the accident killed an employee of one of its subcontractors. She said authorities were on the scene and she had no other details.

Read more here.

Housing inspection manager resigns amid sweeping changes to city demolition policy.

The city of Dayton’s housing inspection manager has resigned and officials promise sweeping changes to increase the demolition of nearly 10,000 vacant and deteriorating properties that drain public safety resources and attract vagrants and crime.

The city’s promise is in response to numerous citizen complaints that nuisance structures are not being demolished fast enough. The city has demolished 54 housing units this year, well off the previously stated goal of 40 properties a month.

The city has received nearly $28 million in federal funds to address blighted neighborhoods and must contract the money out by 2014.

The slow start to this year follows last year’s total of about 300 structures demolished — nearly half the total compared to previous years.

Max Fuller resigned last month as housing inspection manager after commissioners blasted the department for not bringing down nuisance properties fast enough. It is unclear if Fuller’s resignation was related to those issues. A review of his personnel file found no documented issues with his work performance.

The problems with slow demolition are due to mismanagement of contracts by the city and new asbestos regulations implemented last year, city commissioners have said.

Read more here.

DemolitionNews hits back over criticism of its Gabor Prudencio story.

At the beginning of this week, we brought you the exclusive story of Gabor Prudencio, the man who has travelled to the UK from Bolivia to hone his skills at the cutting edge of the global demolition industry. The story followed his visit to last week’s Institute of Demolition Engineers’ spring seminar at which Prudencio was warmly welcomed by all. Judging by the number of people that have read his story and listened to his interview, that welcome has been largely repeated here.

Late last night, however, that changed when we received an email that reads (and the spelling and punctuation are as supplied):

“…you have to be jokeing , us proper English people cant get jobs never mind imagrants, please think again before you put something like this on the web again…”

Now, under normal circumstances, we would have preferred to respond to this directly. But the person that sent this beautifully crafted message chose to use a fake email address that simply bounces our messages back. So instead, we thought we’d respond publicly to lay out our own personal feelings on the matter.

For one thing, the people behind DemolitionNews.com are precisely the same as those behind Demolition-Jobs.co.uk, a website that we funded almost entirely ourselves in order to help British demolition workers find alternative employment. Although this website has helped numerous British people back into work, particularly after the collapse of the Controlled Group, it has never earned us a farthing and never will.

Secondly, all of the people in the industry that we truly admire share one common bond beyond demolition – an incredible passion for their work backed by an impressive work ethic. We firmly believe that Gabor Prudencio shares those qualities.

Furthemore, DemolitionNews.com is a global website. And while Gabor’s story is, of course, UK-based, it would be hypocritical and ridiculous of us to keep at arms’ length any foreign nationals when two thirds of our readership and more than half our income is derived from beyond British shores.

But – and here’s the kicker – we firmly believe that UK demolition contractors want the best possible staff for their companies, and that they have the screening and filtering systems in place before, during and after an interview to sort the wheat from the chaff. That means that they are well-equipped to sort through any array of races, creeds, colours, religions and sexual orientations to find the worker that they believe best suits their requirements, whether that person is British, Jamaican or naturalised Bolivian.

In short, we encourage discussion and debate here and on our DemolitionNews-Forum website. But we will not tolerate this kind of xenophobia.

Great time-lapse video captures viaduct demolition process.

Courtesy of Washington State Department of Transport, a great video of the recent demolition and dismantling of the 60-year old Alaska Way viaduct.

Company misses out on demolition project by 21 cents!

Anyone that has ever been involved in preparing a bid document and tender price will know what a soul destroying and ball busting task it can be. So imagine how you’d feel if you then learned that after all your hard work, you missed out on a contract by a measly 21 cents.

Well, that’s precisely the emotions that the team at Construction Project Manager SA in Panama are going through right now, having missed out on the contract to demolish the country’s former US Embassy by precisely that amount.

The country’s Ministry of Economy and Finance had set a target price of $299,600 for the work. The highest bidder – Agro Civil Constructors, Inc. – came in at just under than number with a bid of $299,000. Construction Project Manager SA put in a competitive bid of $284,620.21. But the company was pipped at the post by a low bid of $284,620.00 from Guaranteed Home Consortium Scrap Logic, a winning margin of just 21 cents, or possibly the cost of the stamp used on sending the bid documentation.

They have our sincerest sympathies.

Man airlifted to hospital following demolition accident.

A contract worker suffered a broken leg and was airlifted to an area trauma center Tuesday after he was temporarily trapped by debris from a TXI Riverside Cement building that was being demolished, according to plant and San Bernardino County Fire officials.

The 49-year-old man was working to tear down some of the older buildings on the plant’s property when the incident took place at about 10 a.m., according to Frank Sheets, spokesman for the plant.

The Fire Department’s Urban Search and Rescue Team was called out, but the man was able to get himself out, Tracey Martinez, spokeswoman for the Fire Department said.

Rescuers airlifted the man to Loma Linda University Medical Center.

Read more here.

Investigation underway over claims that demolition waste was dumped in ocean.

City and state inspectors will try to determine whether debris from a Texas hotel being demolished has been dumped into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Galveston County Daily News reported Wednesday that some witnesses say crews allowed huge shards of glass and chunks of concrete to fall into the Gulf during the demolition of the former Flagship Hotel.

Representatives of Landry’s Restaurants Inc., which owns the property, says so far there’s nothing to indicate that debris has fallen or been pushed into the water. Spokesman Jeff Cantwell says the glass was removed three weeks ago.

Read more here or view video below: