Collective stupidity causes chimney demolition fail.
As regular readers of DemolitionNews will testify, demolishing chimneys using mechanical and explosive techniques can be problematic. But it appears that the challenges extend even to manual demolition means, as this video from an unnamed location (presumably in Eastern Europe) illustrates beautifully:
Union workers want unpaid benefits from New York demolition firm
A local union group has filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against a Syracuse company, alleging the firm failed to pay fringe benefits to employees who completed demolition work at the BayerCrop Science plant in Institute. Federal Magistrate Mary E. Stanley signed off on a judgment order in August that requires Bianchi to pay $205,000 to the West Virginia Laborers’ District Council and its affiliates. The union says it hasn’t been paid.
“We’re in the process of trying to pursue this money from a New York corporation,” said Steven Smith, administrative manager for the West Virginia Laborers’ Pension Trust Fund. “They’ve forgotten to pay their bills. I can’t say anything beyond that because we’re in litigation.”
The union alleged that Bianchi breached its collective-bargaining agreement because the company didn’t pay health and pension benefits to about 40 employees who worked on a 2008-09 demolition project at the Bayer CropScience plant.
Read more here.
Council moves demolition deadline amidst delays.
The long-awaited demolition of the notorious Royal Court tower blocks has been delayed until September.
Work was due to begin last November and completed by this summer, but the latest setback to the project was caused by lengthy negotiations over a shopkeeper’s move and delays to the completion of the first phase of the project.
The demolition of the two empty towers in Laindon is part of a £13 million project under which 129 homes, a community centre and a shop will be built on the site, which has a history of antisocial behaviour. Some of the housing has already been constructed, but this took longer than expected.
Basildon Council leader Tony Ball said: “I hope this gives people the confidence it definitely will happen and I’ve been reassured it will be done by September. “The fact they have started stripping out asbestos gives us confidence.”
The regeneration project has suffered several setbacks. Plans were approved by Basildon Council in December 2007 and work was expected to begin in early 2008, before funding problems hit. The project suffered a further setback last year because a number of Royal Court residents could not move into the new £17 million development next door, due to problems with the electricity supply.
Read more here.
AED seeks decision reversal following bridge ownership court findings.
Newspapers based close to the disputed Bellaire Bridge are reporting that District Judge John T. Mitchell of Kootenai County, Idaho, issued a memorandum Monday stating a demolition agreement between Advanced Explosives Demolition and KDC Investments was an “illegal contract from AED’s standpoint.” The agreement was not valid since AED failed “to obtain a valid contractor’s license and procure the necessary permits before entering into the demolition agreement with KDC,” the memorandum continues.
But DemolitionNews can exclusively reveal that AED owner Eric Kelly is not taking this decision lying down and has appointed legal counsel to have the court’s decision overturned and, ultimately, to pursue an appeal.
We have been given access to a letter drawn up by AED’s legal counsel – Art Bistline – and it is reproduced verbatim below:
To Whom It May Concern:
In early 2010, AED and KDC agreed that once AED acquired the bridge from Roger Barak’s company, then AED would sell the bridge to KDC for $25,000 and KDC would then hire AED to perform the blasting work on the bridge. The parties reduced the sale’s agreement to writing on May 20th, 2010, and KDC failed to pay the purchase price as required by the parties’ agreement. AED then terminated the sales agreement.
AED and KDC continued to negotiate and agreed to go forward, provided KDC execute a written contract or AED to perform the blasting work, which KDC did. KDC then breached the blasting agreement by failing to make the first payment due under that contract.
AED sued KDC for damages and to rescind the sales contract based on the breach of the contract to perform the blasting work. The Court ruled that the parties’ agreement that AED perform the blasting work was illegal because AED did not have a West Virginia Contractor’s license at the time of the making of the agreement. In West Virginia, you cannot refuse to pay a contractor who has performed work because that contractor did not have a license, so the rationale for the Court’s ruling that the agreement for AED to perform the blasting work is illegal because AED did not have a contractor’s license will be challenged on appeal. While it may be illegal from a criminal law perspective to perform contracting work in West Virginia without a license, it is not “illegal” in a private contractual sense.
AED will be moving to modify the judgment on the grounds that if the agreement that AED blast the bridge was illegal and thus void, the entire agreement to sell the bridge is also void, and on other grounds. If the judgment is not reversed, the matter will be appealed.
Very truly yours,
Arthur M. Bistline
1423 N. Government Way
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho 83814
Chinese man sentenced to death in enforced demolition case
A man in north China’s Shanxi province has been sentenced to death after he killed one man and injured another during an illegal demolition last year.Gao Haidong was given the death penalty after being convicted of intentional injury and property damage, Xinhua reported citing the verdict by a court in Taiyuan city.
Two other accused – Wu Ruijun and Li Yanzhong – were given death sentences with a two-year reprieve and life imprisonment respectively.
Wu and Li plotted the forced demolition of two houses owned by Wu Wenyuan and Meng Fugui in Guzhai village in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi, in October, the court found.
Read the full story here.
AED cites fraud but court finds in favour of KDC Investments.
It is a bridge that has changed ownership with the rapidity and frequency that most of us change our socks. But the disputed ownership of the Bellaire Bridge finally seems to have been settled. For now.
According to attorney Randall Schmitz, KDC Investments owns the bridge, but Advanced Explosives Demolition (AED), claimed it was fraudulently induced to selling the bridge. According to court documents, a district judge determined that there was no evidence of fraud and ownership remains with KDC.
Delta Demolition’s Lee Chaklos said he is looking forward to starting work after a series of delays in court. He said the next steps include waiting for the Coast Guard to reinstate a notice to proceed, and a permit from the city of Benwood.
“I believe that if there’s anything that the city needs from us, it should be something that we already have and if we don’t it should be so minute that it won’t take us but maybe a few days to get,” he said. Chaklos said they will also have to get an asbestos notice from an asbestos contractor, along with a 2-day mariner’s notice. “Once the mariners’ notice has expired and we have permit in hand, we’re going to go ahead and start work on the bridge,” he said.
But while Chaklos makes ready to mobilise, the fat lady hasn’t started singing quite yet. Schmitz said AED has 42 days to file an appeal.
Read more here.
Bridge tumbles faster than a high roller’s luck in Las Vegas.
Crews from Las Vegas Paving will spend Monday night demolishing the Warm Springs Bridge near Interstate 15. The bridge has stood since the presidency of John F. Kennedy.
Unlike most Las Vegas demolitions which are over in seconds, this demolition will be done over several hours. Hydraulic hammers, sheers, and pulverizers started knocking the bridge down around 10 p.m. Monday. They will stay at it until the bridge is gone for good.
A modern four-lane bridge will replace the old two-lane bridge. It could eventually expand to six lanes.
Read more here, or view the video below:
Memorial Coliseum deadline moved to March
After months of delays in demolishing Memorial Coliseum, city officials now say work will be complete by early March.
Demolition began last May, and the original deadline of 12 August has been rescheduled several times. The latest one was the end of January. City officials sent a letter in mid-January to contractor A&R Demolition and its bonding company to resolve ongoing delays.
City Project Manager Jerry Shoemaker said the demolition company, which is having financial struggles, did commit to finishing the project, a promise vetted by the bonding company.
“We could go ahead and suspend the work and do it ourselves, but that could open it up to a lot of problems,” Shoemaker said. “This is really the best scenario for the city.”
Personnel changes, money problems and bad weather have delayed work. The company owes the city thousands of dollars with $500 added each day the project stays incomplete. A company official could not be immediately reached for comment.
Over the past week, contractors have been working at the site and using heavy machinery to dig out a final portion of the structure — anchors of the building located five feet below ground. Once that work is complete, contractors will add backfill, an irrigation system and grass seeding.
Read more here.
Iowa implosion causes damage to new bridge.
Officials say plans to demolish an old pier in Burlington by blowing it ended up damaging a section of a new railroad bridge.
The Hawk Eye reports that 90-feet of the new 356-foot span of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway bridge was damaged after an explosion charge was set off to remove the pier Saturday night. . No injuries were reported.
BNSF spokeswoman Amy McBeth says an investigation is under way to determine what happened.
Read more here.
The second edition of Demo Talk Radio is live NOW.
And they said it would never last!
Friends, readers, countrymen. Lend me your ears. The second edition of Demo Talk Radio, the online radio show about and for the global demolition industry, is live and awaiting your listening pleasure.
We’re only two episodes in and already we’re doing one-off specials. We had high hopes of making this another multi-subject broadcast but once we got off the line with Dick Green of IndEx Explosive Engineers, Fabio Bruno Pinto of Fabio Bruno Construcoes in Brazil, and Eric Kelly from the US, we quickly realised that our discussion about the future of the explosive demolition sector was a show in itself.
So please, pour yourself a coffee, sit back, and enjoy Demo Talk Radio #2 (just hit the play button below).
