Communist-era landmark faces demolition in Albanian capital.

The pyramids in Egypt have stood for millennia, a symbol of longevity in an ever-changing world. The landmark pyramid in the Albanian capital, however, looks set to have a somewhat shorter lifespan.

Citing the need for a new parliament building, the Albanian government wants to tear down one of the capital’s main communist-era landmarks. The Government gave the go ahead in late October, but faces strong resistance from architects, opposition parties and the general public.

“We are the only country with a parliament seat consisting of a group of buildings that are inconveniently positioned one from another,” Prime Minister Sali Berisha said in early November, at the first meeting of the New Parliament Building Committee.

The existing parliamentary complex “does not hold up to the standards of parliaments in EU countries or of those in the region”, Parliament Speaker Jozefina Topalli said.

Read more here.

Delicate work fells Rolls Royce factory building…but contractor can’t show anyone

Imagine undertaking the delicate demolition of a four-storey administration building owned by one of the world’s best known engine brands. Imagine that the building to come down was just ten metres from a sensitive neighbor, meaning that a unique scaffold needed to be affixed to the façade to protect that neighbor from dust and vibration. And imagine that this contract went off without a hitch, earning plaudits from the client and the main contractor. But then imagine that the sensitivity of that neighbor prevented you from showing people just what you’d achieved.

Welcome to the world of Chris Doyle, contracts manager with Nottingham-based CMEC Demolition, who has just completed precisely that contract, taking down an administration building at Rolls Royce’s marine engine facility, located next door to a Ministry of Defence (MOD) nuclear facility.

“Working with main contractor Clegg Construction and the MOD, we developed a safe system of work to ensure operative safety, whilst ensuring that the nuclear facility could remain in use,” Doyle says. “We then set about developing a safe method of demolition, utilizing a Volvo high reach excavator to cut the building down a section at a time. To further minimise dust and vibration, each section was lifted to the ground and then removed from the demolition area. All arisings were then put through our crusher and left on site for use by the client; both Rolls Royce and Clegg Construction were very happy with our work.”
Thanks for that Chris – Just a shame there are no photos of what sounds like a fascinating contract.

Dick Green oversees explosive demolition of coal storage plant.

We were so busy yesterday following the emerging news from the failed sugar refinery blast that we actually missed a successful blast rather closer to home.

Thankfully, IDE President John Woodward WAS Paying attention and has just alerted us to this video of Ron Hull Demolition and IndEx taking down the coal storage plant at Welbeck Colliery.

Video shows crew running as building collapses unexpectedly.

More news is emerging over yesterday’s partial stand-up at a sugar refinery which resulted in several failed attempts to bring down one particularly stubborn building. However, as amateur video emerges, it appears that the eventual collapse came very close to being a major incident.

After several attempts to blast the structure, it was announced that the building would be pulled down with cables attached to a hydraulic excavator. This process was expected to take an hour, resulting in a good many of the onlookers gradually drifting away.

However, within five minutes, the building merely “fell over”. And as this video shows, it left at least one demolition worker running for his life (at the 6.30 minute mark).

Sugar refinery implosion sees two out of three buildings stand-up.

Here in the UK, it is Sunday afternoon in the run-up to Christmas. And while the sound of carols and the smell of cinnamon candles waft through the corridors of Demolition News Towers and we really should be doing something more spiritual, we bring you news of a sugar refinery implosion that has gone awry.

According to news sources and this ABC13 video, only one of the two buildings blasted actually fell. In fact, it appears that at least one of the buildings barely twitched when the button was pressed. After two further attempts, the second building actually fell under its own weight. We will be scanning the news wires for further information but, in the meantime, see for yourself and let us have your thoughts and opinions:

Iowa contractor submits zero-dollar bid for park building demolition.

Against a background of low bids, undercutting and desperate demolition contractors clamouring for work, the downward pressure on bid prices has reached it inevitable conclusion with an Iowa contractor submitting a zero-dollar bid to take down a park building.

The 1960’s-era park building was the one-time home of the Green Square meals program. D.W. Zinser of Walford won the demolition job—but won’t charge the city of Cedar Rapids a penny for the work.

Zinser is doing the estimated $25,000 job for free as a way of saying thanks to the community. Dave Zinser, president of the company, said “with everybody’s budgets tight, especially the city, with what they’re trying to accomplish I feel like it’s a small token of giving back to the community.”

Zinser won a number of contracts in recent years to clear away flood-damaged property. That includes a multi-million dollar contract to tear down the old Farmsteads Foods buildings. He made the offer to tear down the Greene Square Park building for free two years ago. But city officials put the work on hold because of all the flood-related issues. Zinser said he reminded the city about the offer recently and they finally scheduled the project.

Read more here.

Raw video captures the final minutes of Rio’s university hospital.

We awoke this morning, bleary-eyed and lightly hungover (well, it is almost Christmas) to find a brief message from Fabio Bruno Pinto to say that his long-awaited implosion of Rio de Janeiro’s University Hospital had gone exactly according to plan and assuring us that he would get us an English-language video later this week.

But impatience is our middle name. And while we are looking forward to seeing the professional footage so see just how it compares to the computer simulation we brought you a few weeks ago, we simply couldn’t wait. And a quick scan of YouTube turned up trumps, allowing us to bring you a very raw (and overlong) clip of the implosion. Quite why the photographer makes us wait until the second minute to fee the block fall is anyone’s guess; but when it does go, it is every bit as spectacular as we had hoped.

Video captures yesterday’s implosion of mine headframe.

While we were spending a quiet, snow-bound afternoon in Demolition News Towers yesterday, awaiting video footage of the twin implosions in North and South America that are taking place today, Jim Redyke and the Dykon tem blind-sided us and imploded a mine headrame while we weren’t looking.

Thankfully, a YouTube user was on hand to capture the shot:

Cuddy Group swoops to bag cut-price hospital contract.

Re-awarding a lucrative hospital demolition contract has saved Stoke-on-Trent City Council £750,000, after the BBC exposed a flawed tendering process.

The council agreed in October 2009 to pay Brown & Mason £1.1m to demolish Westcliffe Hospital, a former Victorian workhouse. But it re-tendered the contract after a BBC investigation in November 2009 showed it had turned down cheaper bids.

The council said it had made serious mistakes in the past but the successful firms were not involved in wrongdoing. After re-running the tendering process, the council said it had now accepted a demolition bid from the Welsh-based firm Cuddy Group for about £340,000.

Read more here.

Chicago brewer launches Demolition beer.

If there are any health and safety people reading, look away now; you won’t like what we’re about to tell you.

Goose Island, the artisan brewer behind some of Chicago’s finest craft beers, has launched a new brew to “honour the brave souls who kept our brewpub open in the early 90’s while wrecking balls tore down the mall around us.”

Dry and smooth, with a grassy, citrus aroma and honey malt middle, the beer is called, appropriately, Demolition, although there’s no word on whether that’s because it makes the drinker fall down.

We are currently truing to speak to the brewer with a possible view to a UK importation but, in the meantime, if anyone can tell us what this stuff tastes like, we’d love to hear about it.