Demolition work to pave way for new homes at UK’s ‘most haunted’ hospital site

Demolition work is paving the way for new homes to be built at what was once described as the UK’s ‘most haunted’ hospital.

Derelict buildings at Sunderland’s Cherry Knowle hospital, a former asylum in Ryhope, are being cleared to make way for more than 750 homes.

In recent years, the site had become a magnet for ghost hunters, with police issuing repeated warnings that people were putting their lives at risk by breaking into the buildings.

The 43-week development programme is being undertaken by North East demolition specialists Thompson’s of Prudhoe on behalf of site owners the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), with work expected to complete on site around the end of the year.

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Smoke stacks’ implosion signals beginning of demolition project…eventually

The skyline in the town of Wabamun, Edmonton has drastically changed. The demolition of three smoke stacks at the old TransAlta Wabamun power plant got underway Friday morning, with the first stack coming down around 10 am. But delays saw the second and third stacks remain defiantly upright further several hours longer.

Area residents were excited to witness their landmark crash to the ground, but the demolition didn’t initially go as planned.

After the first stack came down, it took a couple more hours before the other two stacks fell. While the crowd eagerly waited, the second stack refused to fall for two hours.

Number three soon followed, signaling the end of an era- and stirring strong emotions in Derouin.

Read more here or view the video below.

Chinese businessman employs wrecking crew to demolish $450,000 Lamborghini.

We’ve all heard the expression “a sledgehammer to crack a nut” to describe the use of disproportionate force or expense to overcome a minor problem. But a sledgehammer to crack a car engine fault?

Apparently, they do things differently in China, a fact highlighted by one Han Nan, owner of a wholesale lighting company. Nan spent $450,000 on a new Lamborghini Gallardo L140 last October but took it back to the dealer in November to have an engine malfunction fixed.

But the car was returned still faulty and with a damaged bumper and chassis.

So Nan did what any right-minded lunatic would do – He hired a gang of sledgehammer-wielding demolition men to publicly smash the supercar to pieces….on World Consumer Rights Day.

Read more here.

Business owners demand right to reclaim possessions prior to post-quake demolition.

Angry Christchurch business owners yesterday marched on the Civil Defence base and demanded a senior Government minister speak to them. The protest comes in a week when a senior New Zealand contractor described the post-quake demolition process as “a train wreck”.

The protesters were led by photographer Kurt Langer, who said the group were afraid their buildings would be demolished before they were allowed back in to salvage anything.

“We want to tell the people in that art gallery what they’re doing to our city.” Civil Defence headquarters is based at Christchurch Art Gallery. Mr Langer led a group of about 30 there.

When they saw Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee through the windows, they held their placards to the glass and asked him to come out.

Mr Langer has a studio in Cashel Mall that was damaged in the February 22 earthquake. He is furious he may not be allowed back in before it is possibly demolished in coming days.

“I reckon there could be $500,000 in there – artworks, sculptures, negatives and slides.”

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Hotel demolition halted by “undisclosed issues”.

Demolition crews made small progress this week in the destruction of the Evansville Executive Inn and parking garage.

A small abandoned home at Southeast Seventh and Chestnut streets was razed and preparations demolition of the parking structure was made. But undisclosed issues extended the fate of the parking structure indefinitely, said Martin Woodruff, of Woodruff Hospitality.

On Friday, Woodruff said the structure would come down Wednesday so workers could start building a 220-room Hyatt Place hotel. The $30 million new facility will replace the Executive Inn, which was closed after the property went into foreclosure. The Executive would be destroyed in coordination with the completion of the neighboring Downtown arena. Woodruff declined to discuss why the demolition of the Executive parking structure was delayed.

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Mayor Bing claims another victory in his fight against city blight.

The Detroit City Council has voted to demolish the 5,000-seat Ford Auditorium, the 55-year-old former home of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

The council approved the move unanimously Wednesday, clearing the way for the building’s removal as early as this spring.

Ford Auditorium opened in 1956 and has hosted speeches by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, but has been vacant since the symphony left in 1989.

Mayor Dave Bing tells the Detroit Free Press it’s a key victory for his efforts to revitalize the Detroit riverfront.

Lucky escape for excavator operator as machine falls into basement.

One of the key instructions issued to excavator operators on any construction or demolition site is “beware of unseen basements and underground voids”. But, as this video courtesy of our friends at The Construction Index proves, it is an instruction that isn’t always heeded, even after the operator has tried unsuccessfully to smash the entrance to the basement.

Demolition’s willingness to say one thing and then do another knows no bounds.

Back at the end of January, we roundly applauded the stance taken by TRC Environmental Corp. amidst the low bidding and undercutting surrounding the contract to demolish the Holly Street Power Plant. At that time, the company – the preferred bidder on the project despite its $24.9 million bid being the second highest of the six submitted proposals – was quoted as saying “Don’t ask why we’re so expensive; ask why our competitors are so cheap…”

Almost exactly two months later, however, and that stance appears to have wavered somewhat as submitted a revised proposal that now prices the job at less than half its original submission.

TRC officials would not explain how the company was able to cut its bid so drastically, but said in a statement that it has “steadfast confidence that the proposal submitted to the city fully satisfies” the bid requirements.

“This is a complex process, and we believe that we offer the best strategic plan and the best value to the city in decommissioning the Holly Power Plant,” said the statement from Mike Holder, project manager at TRC Environmental.

Read more here.

Stay of execution for former ICi headquarters.

The on/off plans to demolish the derelict Billingham House have been put on hold.

Bizzy B, the owners of the dilapidated former ICI headquarters, and Stockton Council went to London’s High Court yesterday, where Bizzy B was seeking an injunction to halt the council’s plans to pull down the eyesore building.

Stockton Council took control of the dangerous building last year and planned to press ahead with its demolition. But Bizzy B had in the meantime signed an agreement with Python Properties, who planned to invest £5m and bring it back into use.

By contrast, under the council’s proposals it would cost taxpayers around £500,000 to carry out the demolition work – though the council would seek to recoup these costs from Bizzy B.

Yesterday, as the court was due to look at the case, Bizzy B and Stockton Council reached an agreement to voluntarily hold off demolition until the outcome of a judicial review. The date for a hearing has now been set for May 10.

Read more here.

New Zealand contractor blasts government’s knee-jerk reaction to Christchurch quake.

A Christchurch contractor has dubbed the process for demolishing earthquake-damaged buildings a “train wreck”.

Barry Foster, of Barry Foster Contracting, said his firm had arranged to “deconstruct” the old flour silo in Addington before Civil Defence national controller John Hamilton approved its demolition.

Hamilton has defended the demolition, saying Urban Search and Rescue engineers deemed the Lincoln Rd building a threat to nearby businesses and that it could not be stabilised within a reasonable time.

Foster said the firm had taken in its own engineers, who said that while the brick veneer of the building, already partly collapsed, was unsafe, the structure would be sound once the veneer was stripped away.

The firm had planned to save the estimated 450 cubic metres of imported Oregon timber from the building, as well as the machinery, which was about 150 years old, he said.

“Why are these people going in and wrecking everything? I just don’t understand,” he said. “Im not a greenie or anything like that. It’s terrible to see this s… going on. I’ve got a plan in place to save a lot of stuff.”

Read more here.