Details of two big demolition events have just hit our desks…!

Here at Demolition News Towers, there are times when cobwebs have started to collect around the office letterbox and it’s possible to believe that the postal system has packed up entirely or that we’re the only humans left standing after a global yet silent apocalypse.

And yet today, our mailbag has revealed details of two exciting demolition events; and it’s our intentions to attend both.

The first is the European Demolition Association’s Autumn Conference which this year will be run in conjunction with the DemCon exhibition in Stockholm, Sweden from 8 to 10 September. We were already planning to attend the DemCon event but the opportunity to meet up with the new EDA president and vice-president and other EDA stalwarts will just make this one too good to miss.

Closer to home, 12 October 2010 will mark the first ever National Federation of Demolition Contractors’ Demolition Day conference/seminar here in the UK.

We have started a Facebook Events page for both of these events; you can’t book place via Facebook but if you ARE planning to attend, please sign up so we can keep an eye on who will be there.

EDA Autumn Conference Facebook event
NFDC Demolition Day Facebook event

Two workers from Waltham-based NASDI injured in accident.

Fire officials blamed the wind on the collapse of a wall that trapped two contractors during the demolition of a power plant Thursday afternoon.

The men, employees of the demolition company NASDI of Waltham, were attempting to secure a cable from an elevated basket some nine metres (30 feet) above the ground when a corrugated steel wall at the old TMLP West Water Street generating station folded in on them, said Taunton Deputy Fire Chief Mike Sylvia.

Taunton firefighters used a ladder track to pull the men from their basket, which was pinned next to a brick wall six metres (20 feet) in the air.

One of the men was taken to Morton Hospital and Medical Center with facial lacerations and a suspected broken arm. The second man declined medical treatment.

Read the full story here.

Association reaches agreement with magazine publisher and Demolition Awards organiser.

Giuseppe Panseri has only had his Gucci loafered feet under the European Demolition Association’s presidential desk for just a few short weeks and he has already resolved a public spat with KHL, the magazine publishing company behind the annual Demolition Awards.

Panseri’s predecessor in the EDA hot seat Yves Canessa had publicly criticised international magazine publisher KHL, the originators of the Demolition Awards, blaming the organisers’ apparent “lack of financial transparency” as a key reason for the Association’s decision to terminate its agreement to act as co-sponsor of the Demolition Awards.

However, Panseri has apparently acted quickly to rectify an issue that was reflecting badly on both the association and the publishing house. In a new letter to members, Panseri says:

The EDA wishes to inform you that we have had a further meeting with KHL held in Milan on 14.06.2010, with regard to the 2009 Demolition Summit held in Amsterdam in November 2009.

The EDA is now satisfied that KHL has provided full and detailed financial reports relating to the 2009 event and would like to emphasise that the association has great respect for KHL and recognises that KHL has acted throughout with honesty and integrity.

Panseri goes on to encourage EDA member companies to participate in the 2010 conference and Demolition Awards, although there is no word at this time whether the EDA will be a co-sponsor again.

Blighted Las Vegas site could be cleared as early as today.

Demolition work on some of the Moulin Rouge’s remaining structures could start as soon as today, much to the chagrin of those who insist at least part of the historic remains can be preserved.

The Las Vegas Historic Preservation Commission approved the demolition permit Wednesday.

The Moulin Rouge opened in 1955 as the valley’s first integrated hotel-casino. The casino closed that same year, but in 1960 the property hosted a landmark meeting in which most hotel owners in Las Vegas agreed to end their segregation policies. A 2003 fire gutted the property, and a blaze last year mostly finished what the first one had started.

Earmarked for demolition are the hotel’s façade, a security guard shack and a pair of gutted signs, together with the hotel’s iconic decorative tower. However, some locals still believe that the tower could and should be preserved.

Read more here.

Memphis sets aside $700,000 to demolish eyesore apartment complex.

A Hickory Hill eyesore is scheduled for demolition. The Memphis City Council has set aside $700,000 to tear down the Marina Cove apartment complex, an abandoned property that has sat vacant for years.

“You got trash, you got weeds — nobody stays here,” said James Casey, who lives in a subdivision nearby. “So it is very bad for anybody coming out to this area. We would like to have some economic development in this area,” Casey said. “We’d like to have some businesses come in and put some more funds in the neighborhood.”

The Memphis City Council has agreed to take the first step. “We appropriated $700,000 to acquire the property so that we can take possession of it, and begin demolition of that property,” explained Council Chairman Harold Collins. “We feel very confident we’ll have this individual property down by the end of the year, and hopefully have a groundbreaking for the new development; maybe during the first quarter of 2011.”

Read more here or view the video below.

Putnam county commissioner votes against demolition order over low wage concerns.

We would like to personally nominate Putnam county commission Gary Tillis as our hero of the week after he voted against a low bid for the demolition of a 353 square metre (3,800 square feet) building that, he believed, might impact upon demolition workers’ wages.

Tillis’ concerns were triggered by a disparity in the high and low bids for the project. “It seems like a big gap if you are going to comply with all state laws,” Gary Tillis said Tuesday in considering three bids that ranged from $8,850 to $79,907.

The low bid by D.Carter Inc. of Milton was accepted 2-1 pending a review by the commission attorney and staff, with commissioner Steve Andes asking that the review address the wage question. Hinzman Construction Inc. of St. Albans submitted the high bid. Wiseman Excavating of Liberty submitted a $20,000 bid and a fourth bid was rejected for lack of a bond.

Tillis suspected the disparity in bids could suggest the low bidder would avoid paying prevailing wages, a suspicion that wasn’t eased by reassurances that the issue had been discussed in the pre-bid meetings with contractors.

Gary Tills, we salute you.

To read more, please click here.

Have your say – Is low bidding driving down or keeping down worker wages?

Illegal storeys os luxury residental building must come down, officials say.

The Moscow City Council ordered to demolish 22 illegally-built floors of a luxury residential complex, a council source said on Wednesday. The source said the developer had illegally built 22 floors that were not included to the initial project plans approved by the city. Most of the apartments have already been sold, including the penthouses.

“The developer will have to return money to the customers who bought apartments there,” the source said.

Don-Stroy Development Company, the company responsible for the construction of the complex as well as other luxury residential projects in Moscow, has denied the report, however.

“There are no decisions, decrees or resolutions concerning the demolition of [several floors of] the House on Mosfilmovskaya high-rise. We assure everybody who has purchased an apartment in this object that the company’s commitments to its customers will be fully implemented,” a DON-Stroy press service statement said.

Read more here.

News emerging that five people have been hurt by collapsing wall in Kunming.

At least five people were injured, one critically, when a seven-meter-high wall collapsed into Dongfeng Xi Lu at about 11am this morning. The wall was part of the Yunnan Hotel, which is currently undergoing demolition. The hotel is located on Dongfeng Xi Lu near Wacang Nan Lu in downtown Kunming.

Eyewitnesses reported hearing a loud crash and seeing a cloud of dust. After the dust dissipated a pile of rubble was visible spread across the near Dongfeng Xi Lu bicycle lane and lodged against a public bus in the street. The collapse and ensuing emergency response blocked traffic on the major east-west thoroughfare until about noon.

Equipment used to attack last remaining hot spot at meat packing plant.

Demolition equipment was brought in Tuesday afternoon to attack what fire officials believed was the last hot spot of fire in the walls of the former Emge meat-packing plant near Fort Branch, Indiana.

Crews from Evansville-based Summit Environmental Services and firefighters from throughout the area worked through the night Monday and into early afternoon Tuesday to extinguish hot spots smoldering in the walls of the building.

Because the insulation that was burning was contained between walls of concrete and concrete block, it was difficult to get at it with conventional firefighting equipment and techniques.

The crews from the contractor were brought in at the EPA’s expense Monday afternoon to tear into the walls to reach the smoldering insulation so firefighters could douse it with water from tanker trucks provided by fire departments from throughout the area.

Read the full story here.

Midlands-based contractor wins Basing View revamp contract.

UK demolition firm the Armoury Group has been appointed by a south-east council to kick off a major regeneration project.

The Birmingham-based company will demolish two buildings to make way for a revamp of Basingstoke’s primary town centre business hub, known as Basing View.

The work is part of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s plans to turn the central office location into a new multi-million pound, modern urban business centre.

Read more here.