DemolitionNews hits back over criticism of its Gabor Prudencio story.

At the beginning of this week, we brought you the exclusive story of Gabor Prudencio, the man who has travelled to the UK from Bolivia to hone his skills at the cutting edge of the global demolition industry. The story followed his visit to last week’s Institute of Demolition Engineers’ spring seminar at which Prudencio was warmly welcomed by all. Judging by the number of people that have read his story and listened to his interview, that welcome has been largely repeated here.

Late last night, however, that changed when we received an email that reads (and the spelling and punctuation are as supplied):

“…you have to be jokeing , us proper English people cant get jobs never mind imagrants, please think again before you put something like this on the web again…”

Now, under normal circumstances, we would have preferred to respond to this directly. But the person that sent this beautifully crafted message chose to use a fake email address that simply bounces our messages back. So instead, we thought we’d respond publicly to lay out our own personal feelings on the matter.

For one thing, the people behind DemolitionNews.com are precisely the same as those behind Demolition-Jobs.co.uk, a website that we funded almost entirely ourselves in order to help British demolition workers find alternative employment. Although this website has helped numerous British people back into work, particularly after the collapse of the Controlled Group, it has never earned us a farthing and never will.

Secondly, all of the people in the industry that we truly admire share one common bond beyond demolition – an incredible passion for their work backed by an impressive work ethic. We firmly believe that Gabor Prudencio shares those qualities.

Furthemore, DemolitionNews.com is a global website. And while Gabor’s story is, of course, UK-based, it would be hypocritical and ridiculous of us to keep at arms’ length any foreign nationals when two thirds of our readership and more than half our income is derived from beyond British shores.

But – and here’s the kicker – we firmly believe that UK demolition contractors want the best possible staff for their companies, and that they have the screening and filtering systems in place before, during and after an interview to sort the wheat from the chaff. That means that they are well-equipped to sort through any array of races, creeds, colours, religions and sexual orientations to find the worker that they believe best suits their requirements, whether that person is British, Jamaican or naturalised Bolivian.

In short, we encourage discussion and debate here and on our DemolitionNews-Forum website. But we will not tolerate this kind of xenophobia.

Great time-lapse video captures viaduct demolition process.

Courtesy of Washington State Department of Transport, a great video of the recent demolition and dismantling of the 60-year old Alaska Way viaduct.

Company misses out on demolition project by 21 cents!

Anyone that has ever been involved in preparing a bid document and tender price will know what a soul destroying and ball busting task it can be. So imagine how you’d feel if you then learned that after all your hard work, you missed out on a contract by a measly 21 cents.

Well, that’s precisely the emotions that the team at Construction Project Manager SA in Panama are going through right now, having missed out on the contract to demolish the country’s former US Embassy by precisely that amount.

The country’s Ministry of Economy and Finance had set a target price of $299,600 for the work. The highest bidder – Agro Civil Constructors, Inc. – came in at just under than number with a bid of $299,000. Construction Project Manager SA put in a competitive bid of $284,620.21. But the company was pipped at the post by a low bid of $284,620.00 from Guaranteed Home Consortium Scrap Logic, a winning margin of just 21 cents, or possibly the cost of the stamp used on sending the bid documentation.

They have our sincerest sympathies.

Man airlifted to hospital following demolition accident.

A contract worker suffered a broken leg and was airlifted to an area trauma center Tuesday after he was temporarily trapped by debris from a TXI Riverside Cement building that was being demolished, according to plant and San Bernardino County Fire officials.

The 49-year-old man was working to tear down some of the older buildings on the plant’s property when the incident took place at about 10 a.m., according to Frank Sheets, spokesman for the plant.

The Fire Department’s Urban Search and Rescue Team was called out, but the man was able to get himself out, Tracey Martinez, spokeswoman for the Fire Department said.

Rescuers airlifted the man to Loma Linda University Medical Center.

Read more here.

Investigation underway over claims that demolition waste was dumped in ocean.

City and state inspectors will try to determine whether debris from a Texas hotel being demolished has been dumped into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Galveston County Daily News reported Wednesday that some witnesses say crews allowed huge shards of glass and chunks of concrete to fall into the Gulf during the demolition of the former Flagship Hotel.

Representatives of Landry’s Restaurants Inc., which owns the property, says so far there’s nothing to indicate that debris has fallen or been pushed into the water. Spokesman Jeff Cantwell says the glass was removed three weeks ago.

Read more here or view video below:

The US’ obsession with stadium demolition turns its sights on Houston Astrodome.

It’s an icon of its time, an engineering marvel that helped to define a city. It has a dome that is recognised by millions. And it could be facing the wrecking ball.

The fate of the Houston Astrodome – the “eighth wonder of the world” – is now hanging in the balance.
Debates are flaring in both cities over the future of the aging relics, one-time architectural gems burdened by debt and abandoned by longtime tenants — the Penguins in Pittsburgh, the Astros and Oilers in Houston.

In Houston, after playing host to major sporting events and some of the world’s most famous entertainers, the Astrodome, opened in 1965, has fallen into a state of disrepair. Its sprinkler system doesn’t work, the plumbing is shot and the Houston fire marshal has declared the world’s first domed stadium off limits to occupants.

With that in mind, the future of the fading landmark could end up in the hands of voters. One option would be to demolish the structure and replace it with a park at a cost of $128 million. The plan also would pay off $40 million in debt still on the building.

Read more here.

Demolition of Executive Inn could start next week.

It’s a green light for the demolition of the old Executive Inn parking garage and tower. The news came in Tuesday from the redevelopment commission.

Even though the developer doesn’t own the property just yet, they could be on site as soon as Thursday.

Woodruff Hospitality signed an agreement to let that happen. Thursday will be the Klenck Group’s first day at the site. Martin Woodruff says the demolition is scheduled to take 45 days.

Read more here, or view the video below:

Steve Tomlin on why demolition should reconsider its disposal methods.

One of the best and most impassioned presentations at last week’s Institute of Demolition Engineers’ spring seminar came from architectural salvage specialist Steve Tomlin of MASCo WALCOT.

In an unscripted 15 minutes, Tomlin puts the case for reuse rather than recycling, citing a number of occasions on which his company has resold key architectural pieces – often at a huge profit – that were destined for the crusher or the landfill.

MASCo WALCOT from Mark Anthony on Vimeo.

Atlas Copco attachments reduce scheduled time for bridge demolition by 25%.

Hasselt-based Dutch demolition specialists BVBA Baldewijns & Co faced a tough challenge: within a single weekend, a pair of 100 metre long bridge sections on the E 313 over the A2 highway had to be removed and the rubble cleared away.

Having laid a sand bed to protect the underlying asphalt road, twelve excavators were put to work with heavy breakers and concrete crushers. The most powerful breaker on the site was a 3,000 kg Atlas Copco HB 3000. A total of 4,000 m³ of concrete was demolished, sorted and removed, including 300 tonnes of reinforced steel. The job was completed in only 40 hours, far less than the scheduled time of 55 hours.

The starring role was played however by the newest concrete cutters from Atlas Copco: the CC 6000, equipped with universal jaws that made it possible to cut through and crush the bearing beams of the bridge and then cut through the heavy reinforcing bars.

DemolitionNews attended last week’s IDE seminar in Leeds and was suitably impressed.

But while the venue and timing followed a traditional and well-trodden path, the latest IDE Spring Seminar was quite a different kettle of demolition fish.

For one thing, it was standing-room only with delegates being shoe-horned into the auditorium; the exhibition area has grown from the usual half dozen or so familiar faces to be a truly representative display of products and services from across the demolition spectrum; and even the presentations – previously treading a fine line between technical and migraine – were somehow lighter and more engaging despite still conveying the necessary information.

It is clear that the Institute’s Council of Management has been working behind the scenes to make the IDE more inclusive, swelling membership and putting it on a similar footing to its fellow institutes, the IStructE and ICE. And it has paid off.

The Institute of Demolition Engineers’ own Demolition Engineer magazine will, of course, shortly be producing a full review of the event and its various presentations, some of which we have captured as audio or video for broadcast in the next few days.

But if you have ever attended an IDE event in the past and thought, perhaps, it was a little high-brow and technical for your tastes, think again. There is a new IDE in town, and its Autumn seminar in London is set to be a sell-out.