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).

Heavy Decom International’s new “baby” rolls off Kocurek production line.

It’s been the talk of the high reach excavator market for months; but Heavy Decom International’s new machine is ready to go to work.

Based on an Hitachi EX1200 hydraulic excavator, the machine has undergone extensive modification at the Kocurek Excavator facility in Ipswich. Those modifications include:
• Converting the machine to run on biodegradable hydraulic oil
• Hydraulically-removable counterweight and an elevating/tilting cab
• Walkways and handrails to the two main booms and the topside of the machine for optimum operator safety.

These modifications have increased the machine’s operating weight from an original 120 tonnes to 200 tonnes.

But it is the change of front-end equipment that has made the greatest difference to the machine. Heavy Decom International specified the unit with both a three-piece triple arm and a four-piece quad boom. These allow the machine to carry a 25 tonne shear to a working height of 26 metres; and a smaller 12.8 tonne Genesis GXP1500R to 33 metres. The machine can carry a 7.0 tonne tool to its maximum 38 metre working height.

We are hoping to capture some exclusive video of the machine when it goes to work. But, in the meantime, these exclusive photos highlight the sheer scale of this mega-machine.

After lying dormant for five years, Vetch Field is finally coming down.

The BBC is reporting that demolition work is finally underway at Vetch Field, the stadium that was home to Swansea City football club which moved to the nearby Liberty Stadium some five years ago.

Opened in 1912, the ground held around 12,000 at the time of its closure, but upwards of 30,000 at its peak.

The demolition phase is likely to last about four months. A planning application to landscape the site once it’s been demolished has been submitted and, if approved, landscaping should be complete by the end of the summer. The contract is being undertaken by leading Welsh demolition contractor, Cuddy Group.

Read more here.

Preparing for demolition of General Motors plant taking longer than anticipated.

Dismantling the Massena plant once was set to begin as early as last July. But after PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were discovered in plant equipment last summer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began oversight of the demolition process.

The EPA has taken extra time to collect soil samples and other data before taking down the plant, according to project manager Anne E. Kelly. That will speed up remediating the contaminated parts of the site once the plant is down, Ms. Kelly said.

“We’re trying to collect as much data as possible so that once the cleanup and remediation activities actually start, there are less questions and less surprises,” she said.

Read more here.

DemolitionNews launches industry-specific Amazon store.

Take a look to the left of this article; that’s it, just below the Twitter update and the word “Sponsors”. You’re looking at the new DemolitionNews Amazon store front.

We are using this feature in order to share with you some of the latest industry-related products available through the world’s largest online retailer. The stock so far includes a variety of videos, computer games and, of course, demolition books.

To view the product carousel, click and hold the up and down arrows at the bottom; you can then click the inidvidual items to be taken straight to Amazon for further details and for your opportunity to buy.

We will be replenishing the “stock” on a regular basis so please, check back often. There’s no pressure to buy; just a new way for us to share with you what we’re looking at and buying ourselves.

New edition of the NFDC’s flagship magazine is available to read online.

The Winter 2010/11 edition of Demolition & Dismantling, the magazine of the National Federation of Demolition Contractors, is currently winging its way to Federation members, subscribers and other interested parties across the UK as we speak.

But if you can’t wait to get your hands on the latest paper edition, you can read it online below:

Work remains unfinished at Illinois company apparently quits Georgia contract.

Gateway Environmental, the Illinois-based firm that got the contract to demolish the Hight Homes property in Rome, Georgia, has apparently left the job while still owing local subcontractors close to $120,000, according to the Northwest Georgia Housing Authority.

The authority has issued a term letter to the company and given it until 1 February to commence work toward completion of the demolition contract.

NWGHA Technical Services Director Steve Chumley said at the authority board meeting Wednesday that the only work yet to be completed involves small fill and compaction on the site, which is expected to house a Publix by early 2012.

The authority is holding $45,000 that has not yet been paid to Gateway. Chumley said that if another contractor has to be called in to complete the project, the $45,000 should cover any additional expense.

Chumley estimated that nine local subcontractors are owed money by Gateway, and at least one of those companies knew that Gateway was behind on its payments and continued to work for the company.

Read more here.

The UK is to get a new equipment exhibition but (and it has more but than J-Lo).

Regular readers will be all too aware of our feelings of respect and admiration for the fair-weather money grabbers and bean counters who bled dry and discarded the corpse of the UK institution that was the SED exhibition.

So we were excited when we heard that a bunch of brave souls had decided to pick up the baton, dropped so unceremoniously by the SED organisers, in an attempt to stage a new working exhibition of construction and demolition equipment exhibition here in the UK. We certainly wish the Construction Equipment Association every success in this brave and noble venture.

However (and you could sense there would be a however, couldn’t you) the organisers are already making life difficult for themselves.

For one thing, the inaugural show is scheduled for 2013. Setting aside the fact that it’s two years away and Lord-alone knows if we’ll be able to afford the petrol by then, it’s 2013…. Twenty-THIRTEEN. We can only assume the organisers aren’t big on superstition.

Secondly, the team behind the exhibition have named it Plantworx, burdening their yet-to-be-born progeny with the lamest name since Frank Zappa held his newborn daughter aloft, pronouncing “and we shall call her Moon Unit“.

But superstition and daft names pale into insignificance alongside the decision to launch a new construction equipment extravaganza in a Bauma year (for our American readers, this is akin to hosting a formal no TV, beer or nachos themed party on the day of the SuperBowl). Anyone with any connection with the SED show will know that exhibitor numbers fell away like a politician’s promises whenever there was another big show taking place in the same year. And shows don’t come any bigger than Bauma. The organisers of Plantworx (that name doesn’t get any better, does it) don’t just face an uphill struggle; they’re stood at the foot of a German Everest, armed only with a great deal of enthusiasm and a packed lunch.

Yet they do have some big names on board. While their show was in it’s death throes, the organisers of SED attempted to lure the industry half-way across the country with the promise of meeting the UK’s premier trailer manufacturer and some guy selling workwear from the back of a van. Plantworx already has the backing of JCB, Volvo and Manitou; and with two years of hard-selling still to play with, these surely won’t be the only big names to lend this well-intentioned venture their support.

One thing’s for sure. When 14 May 2013 rolls around, DemolitionNews will be at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire…assuming, of course, that they’ve forgotten what we said about their name choice by then.

Ron Hull takes down largest structure at century old pit

Experts at Rotherham-based Ron Hull Demolition have successfully demolished the hundred foot high coal train loading bunker on the Welbeck Colliery in North Nottinghamshire.

Production at the century old pit, one of the last two working collieries in Nottinghamshire, ended in May and the site is now being cleared by a specialist team.

Colliery manager Geoff Mountain, who is supervising the sealing of the mine and clean up of the site, said: “The rapid loading bunker was used to fill coal trains at high speed. It was capable of filling a train with sixteen or seventeen hundred tons in just two hours.

“Because of the height of the bunker and the fact that so much of the weight was in the series of hoppers in the top of the structure, it was decided that the quickest and safest way of demolishing it was to use explosives.”

David Wall, contracts director at Ron Hull added: “It went down very gracefully and with remarkably little damage to the main structure. When the smoke cleared it was simply lying on its side. We can now get to work and dismantle it safely.

You can read more here or, alternatively, hop over to DemolishDismantle to check out an exclusive video of the implosion.