Ongoing clearance of Scottish skyline continues with latest implosion.

Greenock tower block Octavia Court was reduced to rubble in just a few seconds, demolished in a controlled explosion for River Clyde Homes at 2.30am today.

Around 10 kilogrammes of explosives placed at 500 points within the empty block of flats in Sinclair Street were enough to bring the structure down.

Crowds watched from Lady Octavia Park as the explosions boomed out across Greenock. River Clyde Homes said that the location of the building made it cheaper and more convenient to demolish with explosives although the operation had to take place overnight when trains weren’t running on the nearby Wemyss Bay railway line.

A large area around the flats had been sealed off and the residents of the nearest homes were put up in a hotel during preparations on Saturday.

Tower blocks branded eyesores by locals are finally being demolished.

Work began yesterday to pull down Bayley and Stoneycroft Towers, in Bromford, after a five-year delay.

Attempts by Birmingham City Council to demolish the 20-storey blocks have been frustrated by first, the recession, and then a family of peregrine falcons.

The council had finally secured the funds to demolish the blocks last year when they found two falcons had made a nest at the top of Bayley Tower and hatched four chicks. Demolition could not start until the birds flew off, which they did at the end of last year.

Read more here.

Proof that job of videographer is almost as hazardous as demolition.

Workers demolishing an old power house at the Hanford nuclear reservation used explosives to bring down five structures, including a pair of exhaust chimneys.

And, as the video below shows, it went with quite a bang.

Fears that premature demolition could prevent site sale.

Missouri state senator Clair Mccaskill has written to the US Treasury Department in an attempt to halt what she believes to be a premature demolition of the former Chrysler manufacturing plant in Fenton.

The site was acquired by Capstone Group when Chrysler fell into bankruptcy. Following several failed attempts to sell the facility as a going concern, Captsone has entered into a contract with MCM to demolish both the North and South plants.

However, Mccaskill says that her office has received several enquiries from companies interested in purchasing the North plant intact. And she is calling on the US Treasury Department to intervene.

In her letter, Mccaskill says: “Unlike the demolition of the South Plant, Capstone appears to have moved ahead with the contract on the North Plant before receiving approval of the County to demolish it.”

The letter concludes: “There are serious questions that need to be addressed. There is real interest in the North Plant from potential buyers. If the plant is demolished prematurely, it could affect the ability to bring good-paying, long-term manufacturing jobs to the region.”

A copy of the letter can be found here.

Excellent TV quality video captures demolition of America’s Showplace.

As work on the demolition of Philadelphia’s Spectrum Stadium draws to a close, CSN have put together a TV quality video that follows the process from the first strike of that too-small wrecking ball, through the controlled roof collapse, to the final deconstruction.

Explosive demolition will fell buildings that helped fuel US WWII arms race.

Five structures, some that have towered over central Hanford since World War II, are planned to come crashing to the ground today when explosives are detonated by CDI.

The tallest will be the two 76 metre (250-foot) exhaust chimneys at the 284 West Power House in central Hanford. Workers also will no longer see the 42 metre (140-foot) water tower there, with the “Work Safely” message that has greeted workers in the 200 West Area of central Hanford for years. In addition, two 27 metre (90-foot) air filter structures for the power house will come down.

The power house was built in 1943 as Hanford raced to produce plutonium for the world’s first atomic explosion and the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, helping end World War II.

The power house, which was shut down in 1992, was used to produce steam for heating and power for buildings in the 200 West Area, ranging from office buildings to plutonium processing canyons.

During the early 1980s the air filter structures, called baghouses at Hanford, were added to reduce pollution coming out of the stacks.

“Given the sheer height of the structures, explosive demolition was selected as the safest method of demolition,” Kurt Kehler, CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. vice president, said in a statement.

Read more here.

Major equipment investment signifies company’s intent.

Lee Group Ltd has embarked on a major upgrade of its demolition, recycling and earthmoving equipment.

Spearheading the procurement programme is a fleet of 25 Hitachi excavators including five high reach demolition machines. The high reach equipment includes two 70-tonne Zaxis 670s and a custom-made zero tail swing Zaxis 225.

In addition to these, Lee Group Ltd has purchased numerous conventional demolition excavators ranging in size between 13 tonnes and 55 tonnes. A handful of industrial shears, pulverisers, selector grapples and breaker attachments have also been procured to work in conjunction with the new excavators.

The company’s recycling capabilities have been expanded with the addition of two new mobile tracked crushers from Sandvik.

Contractor leaves developer in lurch after stripping site of steel and copper.

The city Code Enforcement Office has begun a process of fining property developer Daniel Siniawa $1,000 per day for alleged code violations at a complex near downtown Wilkes-Barre.

On 2 February, the city notified Siniawa of conditions on the site that were determined by the code office to be hazardous and unsafe, according to Drew McLaughlin, assistant to Leighton.

McLaughlin said the condition of the property has not improved since the violation notices were sent, so the fine process began on Monday. He said the fine process is not impacted by the scheduled meeting with Siniawa.

“There is a meeting about the status of the project under development,” McLaughlin said. “It is standard practice for the mayor and city officials to meet periodically with any developer of an ongoing project in the city.”

The complex is owned by Siniawa 16 LP, according to Luzerne County property records. Siniawa Investment Group, of which Daniel Siniawa is president, is a partner in the limited partnership, according to the state corporation bureau.

“I guess my reaction to the citations and fines is that the city should be informed of our plans,” Siniawa said. “Basically, the contractor we hired to demolish the building took off after he removed all of the steel and copper from the site. We are trying to get him back on the job to continue the cleanup, but I really don’t expect that to happen.”

Siniawa wouldn’t identify the contractor (although local newspaper archives suggest the building was demolished by L&S Recycling), but he did say he plans to clean up the site in the spring when the weather is better.

Read more here.

Man critically hurt by falling concrete.

A construction worker helping to demolish the former Technical High School on Elliot Street in Springfield was critically injured Thursday afternoon when he was pinned under a slab of falling concrete.

The worker was carried from the demolition site and rushed to Baystate Medical Center following the 1:45 p.m. accident, officials said. He was identified as Sean McMurray, 51, of Wallingford, Conn.

Construction workers are demolishing the former high school as part of a $110 million project to build the Springfield Data Center.

According to officials close to the operation, McMurray was employed with Stamford Wrecking, of Trumbull, Conn., one of the subcontractors for the demolition.

He was doing demolition work when a slab of concrete inside the remaining portion of the building collapsed.
Officials said it appeared he fell with the slab and was pinned underneath it.

Read more here and for more recent updates, here.

Students have lucky escape as car park collapses during demolition.

According to local newspaper reports, two teenage students escaped serious injury when falling rubble from a multi-storey car park narrowly missed them.

Read more here.