Amidst industry speculation, facts are emerging about possible causes of accident.

Although accident investigators are continuing to piece together the circumstances surrounding the tragic accident that killed STC BV’s Ad Swanink, some initial facts are beginning to emerge.

It appears that a long-running dispute between manufacturer/modifier Rusch and the machine’s owner Euro Demolition BV led to the owner collecting the machine from Rusch more than a week ago to have further machine modifications and testing undertaken by STC BV. Quite what those additional modifications involved is not known at this time.

However, indications suggest that prior to the accident, the machine’s safety system had been disconnected, none of the boom shafts had been safeguarded, and the track body –which should be secured by 24 bolts – had been secured in just the four corners and the bolts in these areas sheared off during the accident.

Also sheared off were the outriggers that support the ballast block although, according to initial findings, it appears that this was a straight line failure with no sign of previous wear or damage between the mainframe and the ballast block. It is this three-part ballast block that fell from the machine intact, killing Ad Swanink.

It is, of course, far too early to speculate about what operation the machine was performing when this catastrophic and tragic failure occurred. But our sources suggest that the disconnection of the safety system and too few bolts securing the track body combined with the boom being raised too abruptly MAY have triggered the failure.

Power plant tender process begins again as city throws out previous bids.

The City of Austin, which last week was on the verge of hiring a construction company to dismantle the Holly Power Plant, has decided to throw out all bids for the project amid questions about why a relatively expensive proposal became the city’s preferred choice.

The contract to dismantle the plant will be rebid, and the city hopes to select a company by May 26 , according to a Thursday afternoon memo from Assistant City Manager Rudy Garza to the City Council. The memo also states that in weighing criteria such as the experience and expertise of the various companies, “there should have been greater emphasis on … the total cost of the project.”

But, the memo adds, “we have confirmed that the process (of ranking the bids) was in fact fair and equitable.”

The delay is the latest chapter in a long-running saga surrounding the now-decommissioned Holly Power Plant, an emblem to many East Austin residents of a city willing to trample the environment in minority communities. The hulking plant has been shuttered since 2007, and now residents must wait longer for their unwanted neighbor to disappear from the skyline.

The city staff did not grade the dismantling proposals based entirely on cost, as it does on most projects. Instead, the city, using a method it sometimes employs for complex projects, crafted a scoring matrix that also took into account factors such as a firm’s experience with Austin issues, its local business presence and its likelihood of finishing on time and on budget. City officials said the dismantling of a power plant in the middle of a residential neighborhood is complicated enough that other factors needed to be considered.

When all those factors were taken into account, TRC Environmental Corp. narrowly edged out Dixie Demolition . On a 115-point scale, the bids were separated by 0.64 of a point .

Dixie’s bid was $18.8 million . TRC Environmental’s bid was $6.1 million more. TRC Environmental’s higher score was based primarily on what the city staff believed was the company’s superiority in seven of the other categories measured.

Read more here.

Onlooker gets too close but escapes unharmed.

Bell & Associates Construction blasted out the remaining concrete columns and the roadway support beams on the Red River Bridge in a tremendous explosion on Wednesday night. The explosion took place at 10:14:05pm during which time traffic on Wilma Rudolph Blvd was completely shutdown.

The process began by cutting almost completely through the massive steel support beams, then placing shaped cutting charges to finish the job. The support columns had been pre-drilled to allow explosive charges to be placed inside. Once that was complete, all equipment located on or near the bridge had to be removed. Then after a final safety check and a series of long blasts on the horn, it was time for the blast.

As the detonation was triggered, fire could be seen racing through the det cord at 7,000-8,000 meters per second. The shaped charges kicked off first slicing through the support steel, then the bursting charges in the support columns went off instantly pulverizing them.

Media had been ordered out of the area directly adjacent to the bridge by the state fire marshal for safety purposes, but an intern from APSU – who had clearly called by the Stupid Store and bought its entire stock – violated the safety zone, clambering down a cliff side unobserved to the water level a short distance from the bridge to record video, and as a result was pelted by flying debris. This could have easily been a fatal choice as some of the flying chunks were quite large. Luckily, he was uninjured.

Read more here or view the video below:

“Don’t ask why we’re so expensive; ask why our competitors are so cheap…”

The leading competitor for the Holly Street Power Plant demolition contract has broken its silence in the wake of City Council’s decision last week to delay an approval vote to allow more time to study the differences in cost and qualifications between the top two firms vying for the project. Council is slated to take a fresh look at the matter on Jan. 27.

TRC Environmental Corp. is city staff’s preferred candidate to disassemble the massive East Austin power plant. But the company’s $24.9 million bid – the second-highest price among six submitted proposals – has provided sufficient ammo for two competitors to question the decision.

TRC project manager Mike Holder prefers to frame the question in reverse: “Why is our competition priced so low?” He says his company’s bid price is more realistic because it will translate, in the long run, to fewer change orders – the requests that contractors must submit when they need additional funds to complete particular projects.

Nevertheless, charges of fiscal imprudence on contractual matters tend to make council members squirm, particularly in an election season with three incumbents up for re-election. Some insiders suggest that the Holly item was postponed at the eleventh hour, when the vote appeared to be leaning away from TRC and in favor of the staff’s second-ranked firm, Dixie Demolition, whose bid is $6.1 million cheaper. That’s when TRC decided to speak up.

Read more here.

Housing association seeks bidders for largest UK demolition job of the year.

Leading UK construction news portal Construction Enquirer is reporting that Glasgow Housing Association is searching for a demolition contractor to tear down one of the most notorious estates in the city.

The £8 million job will see the demolition of six, 31-storey blocks, once reckoned to be the tallest flats in Europe. The demolition of around 720 flats is expected to be the biggest demolition job to go out to bid this year and presents a huge challenge because of high levels of asbestos both inside and outside the buildings.

The successful contractor will be promised a steady work stream with the complex task expected to take around four years to complete.

The deal is part of a £60 million transformation of the area that was started by Safedem, the former Demolition Contractor of the Year.

Read the full story here.

The tragic death of Ad Swanink casts a long shadow over the high reach demolition sector.

Any demolition-related death is tragic. But – regardless of the findings of the investigation currently taking place in the Netherlands – the accident that killed STC BV’s Ad Swanink has cast a shadow over the high reach demolition excavator business. And it may be some time before the industry regains its balance having been so seriously rocked by this incident.

The cause of the accident remains shrouded in mystery. Initial reports suggested that the rear counterweight of the Rusch TUHD90 machine, the world’s largest high reach demolition excavator, became detached, crushing Swanink. Later reports have suggested that the machine’s massive undercarriage collapsed, dislodging the counterweight. The investigation may take weeks; the impact upon the high reach demolition sector may last considerably longer.

The passing of Swanink is a blow to the industry in itself. Although his company did not seek the limelight to quite the same degree as fellow Dutchmen Rusch, STC was regarded as one of the sector’s true pioneers; and Swanink – like Ruud Schreijer, his opposite number at Rusch – was the driving force behind the company’s innovation.

Swanink’s untimely and tragic death is a loss, and our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues at this time.

But our fear is that something else may have died along with Swanink; a gung-ho, pioneering spirit that has taken high reach excavators from 25 metre reach novelty to 50 metre mainstay machine in a decade.

Every industry, indeed every aspect of human endeavour, needs its innovators; individuals that see an envelope as something to push. And the team at Rusch were this industry’s self-appointed envelope pushers in chief.

While UK-based Kocurek has achieved global acclaim and market leadership with incremental size increases taking a crescent at a time, Rusch shot for the whole of the moon.

In the two years since it rolled out of Rusch’s workshops, the TUHD90 machine has earned plaudits, collected awards and attracted media coverage like no machine before it. Freakishly large, the Frankenstein’s monster born of a Caterpillar mining excavator became a demolition icon. And although it scarcely turned a track in anger, it represented the very pinnacle of high reach evolution; the cutting edge of engineering exploration.

Was it an evolution too far? Possibly; certainly there have been question marks over the machine’s potential utilisation levels virtually since it emerged blinking into the Dutch sunlight. And the fact that Rusch’s rivals have apparently set an unwritten 65 metre upper development limit is, perhaps, telling in itself.

But the thought that this accident might jeopardise or even halt progress in the high reach sector – one of the construction industry’s last true bastions of innovation – is almost as tragic as Swanink’s passing.

And as a noted innovator himself, it is not what Ad Swanink would have wanted.

Industry loses another character as company founder passes away.

The UK demolition industry was dealt another blow last Thursday with the passing of Joe Romani, founder of Demolition Services Leeds. He was just 61 years old and had been ill for some time.

We didn’t know Joe personally but judging by the comments we have received from those that did know him (he was a bit of a lad, seems to be a universally-held belief), the industry has lost one of its last few characters and will be the poorer for his passing.

Our thoughts are with Joe’s family, friends and colleagues at this time.

Man killed in accident involving world’s largest demolition excavator.

We are receiving reports that a man has been killed in an accident involving the Rusch TUHD90, to date the world’s largest demolition specification high reach excavator.

Investigations are taking place on site in the Netherlands as we speak but we understand that the man killed was Ad Swanink, owner of another Dutch engineering pioneer, STC BV.

According to initial reports, the counterweight on the rear of the giant machine became dislodged and fell to the ground, crushing Swanink who, together with his son, was involved in testing the machine. We would stress, however, that the actual cause of the accident is not yet known.

The record-breaking Rusch TUHD90 has been the subject of considerable media attention for the past few years, earning awards and accolades for designer and Rusch managing director Ruud Schreijer along the way.

We are hoping to bring you further news on this tragic incident soon but, in the meantime, please click here for our take on this tragic event.

Equipment rolling again at Memorial Coliseum ahead of crisis talks.

We reported at the end of last year that all may not be well with A&R Demolition, the company behind the implosion of the Texas Stadium, one of the highlights of the 2010 demolition calendar.

Since our report, the company had downed tools on the Memorial Coliseum contract. However, following a letter from Corpus Christi city officials demanding the contract be completed, A&R workers have returned to the site ahead of a meeting between contractor and the city tomorrow.

Business owners up in arms over compulsory acquisition and demolition plans.

A number of new buildings and businesses alongside a major Kenyan highway are facing compulsory acquisition and demolition as part of the government’s stated road network expansion plans.

The country’s Ministry of Lands has issued notice that it plans to swallow up various parcels of land along Mombasa Road as part of the JKIA-Museum Hill Gigiri Road project. Among the buildings slated for demolition is the Standard Group Media Centre that houses the Kenyan television network and the daily standard newspaper.