OSHA fines Binghamton demolition contractor $52,500 for fall and lead hazards

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited MJ Scoville Inc., a Binghamton, N.Y., demolition contractor, for nine willful and serious violations of workplace safety and health standards at a building renovation site at 83 Court St. in Binghamton. The contractor faces a total of $52,500 in proposed fines, chiefly for fall and lead hazards.

OSHA’s inspection found Scoville employees exposed to falls of up to 40 feet while working without fall protection as they took down the walls of a fourth floor elevator shaft as well as 14-foot falls from an unguarded scaffold. The employer also failed to conduct personal air monitoring to determine lead exposure levels for employees performing demolition work with materials known to be covered with lead paint, and did not implement interim protective measures including respiratory protection, biological monitoring, medical surveillance, clean change areas and employee training on lead hazards.

“These are two of the most common and well-known hazards workers can face during demolition operations and must be effectively addressed by the employer on each and every jobsite,” said Christopher Adams, OSHA’s area director in Syracuse. “Falls can injure or kill a worker in seconds while lead exposure can damage the kidneys and the central nervous, cardiovascular, reproductive and hematological systems.”

Read more here.

New video from GTS Group demonstrates the precision of the high reach excavator.

The wrecking ball vs the high reach excavator; traditional vs modern; old school vs new: It is an argument that has been raging here on DemolitionNews from day one and will probably continue long after we’re consigned to the great press desk in the sky.

But the fact that the argument is old doesn’t mean that it doesn’t make for great video, a fact proven by our new-found friends GTS Group in Dubai who have made the following video to help introduce the high reach concept to their local market.

Sure, there are a few old-school wreckers out there that will still insist that the ball and crane reign supreme. But even they will have to admit, this is a great video:

Photos capture unique demolition contract.

So last Friday, an email dropped into our inbox promising us some unusual demolition photos. Now we get a lot of this here at Demolition News Towers and what follows can be a pretty mixed bag that ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous (and we have even received a few “holiday photos” by mistake over the years).

But we were not prepared for the following photos sent to us by Jan Hage from Van Leeuwen Katwijk B.V. in the Netherlands.

Although we’re waiting for more details, these photos show VLK Group demolishing a 747-200 aircraft over a seven-day period in Brussels; not the kind of thing you see every day:

Contractor commits catalogue of safety breaches and receives minor fine.

The Health & Safety Executive’s findings make it very clear. A Leicester construction company endangered the lives of both its workforce and the public while demolishing an old factory in Leicester city centre, a court has heard.

Saleh Properties Ltd was demolishing a disused factory on 21 April 2010 when an HSE inspector found that the building was at risk of uncontrolled collapse. Leicester Magistrates’ Court heard that workers had removed structural parts of the building without supporting it properly. Some workers were even spotted standing on the roof, demolishing parts of the building by hand, and were working at height without suitable equipment to prevent falls. Missing safety signs and fencing were ordered to be installed to ensure members of the public were kept away from the unsafe building.

The HSE inspector immediately stopped work and served prohibition notices preventing any more activity until a demolition plan was in place and a competent supervisor was on site.

And the penatly for such a catalogue of unsafe practice? The company was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,084.

What hope is there for professional and properly trained contractors when safety breaches such as this result in a minor slap on the wrist?

Read the full story here or join the discussion here.

Video captures hotel demolition.

We don’t actually know where this project is taking place (although the company is based in Dubai so that may be a clue) but, regardless of geographic location, it makes for a pretty good demolition video:

Well, as you can see from this correction, it took us a while to track it down but we can now confirm that the Ritz Carlton Hotel being demolished in this video is at Jumeriah Beach, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The work is being carried out by Dubai-based The GTS Group using a high reach excavator purchased from Mutley Plant right here in the UK.

Fine for company in crushing death at Australian demolition site

A Liverpool (Australia, not the North West of England) company has been fined $100,000 and ordered to pay WorkCover’s legal costs after a Minto man was crushed to death at a demolition site.

The 58-year-old was killed when a loading ramp collapsed after a hydraulic lifter malfunctioned at the site in Fairfield in January 2008.

The incident was caused by the failure of a pivot pin causing the ramp to collapse, crushing the worker underneath.

The Industrial Court of NSW found that P and D Transport did not have any system for periodic inspection of the trailer or pivot pins in place.

The sole director of the transport company, Paul Houghton, was separately charged and fined $5000 by the court and ordered to pay a proportion of WorkCover’s legal costs.

Read more here.

Councillor with semi-demolished tower block says collapsed company was “significantly cheaper”

Hindsight, as the saying goes, is always 20:20. And certainly the collapse of Midlands-based Armoury Demolition and the resulting fallout which has left the town of Basingstoke seeking an alternative company to finish the demolition of a local tower block is an object lesson in the “if a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is” school of hard-knocks.

Cllr James Lewin admitted Armoury’s quote for the job had been ‘significantly cheaper’ than those other companies. But he said the company’ references had been good enough to make it first choice.

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but we had no reason to believe that this would happen,” he says. “I know many people in their personal life would be steered clear if someone came in offering to do the work at a much cheaper price than everyone else, but local authorities can’t legally do that.”

In reaction to Armoury’s collapse, the opposition Labour group is calling for a review into the council’s tendering process.

Read more here.

The demolition project where prices go up faster than buildings come down.

The original estimated cost of tearing down the Sinclair meatpacking plant was $7.366 million. Flooding, two fires and the presence of “mouldy corn” drove the price up to $15.3-million. But newspaper reports now suggest that the cost to tear down the former Sinclair meatpacking plant here has now gone over $20 million.

The latest addition to the demolition is the expected cost of $947,754 for an additional 123,085 cubic yards of dirt needed to fill the holes at the former plant site, according to Greg Eyerly, the city’s flood-recovery director.

The latest expense will bring the expected demolition cost to $20.99 million, 90 percent of which is being paid by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, 10 percent by the state of Iowa.

Read more here.

Company collapse brings Basingstoke rejuvenation to standstill.

But the company went into administration on December 23, meaning that work to tear down the 10-storey blocks has not restarted after the Christmas break. However, borough chiefs who are behind the scheme, say they are confident the work will continue and may be completed within three months once a new contractor has been found.

Cllr James Lewin, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council Cabinet Member for Finance, said: “The council remains totally committed to creating a 21st Century urban business park of regional importance as part of our transformation of Basingstoke town centre. The demolition company going into administration is unfortunate but we are in a strong position with half of the most difficult work already completed. Therefore, I remain confident that we should still be able to complete the contract within the earmarked growth point funding we received from central government and with only a few months’ delay.”

He said officers have been in discussions with the administrators and are working to get the project back on track as quickly as possible. The demolition had been scheduled for completion by April this year, but could still be finished in the summer.

Read more here.

US motor industry takes another blow as another GM plant faces the wrecking ball.

The City of Wyoming is releasing plans for the former General Motors plant on 36th Street in Wyoming, Michigan.

Lormax Stern Development from West Bloomfield, Michigan has agreed to buy the plant and work with the City of Wyoming to redevelop the property. WZZM 13’s Peter Ross says that the land would be redeveloped for advanced manufacturing or as an industrial park.

Lormax Stern plans to demolish the plant. Then, the company intends to sell the location back to the city of Wyoming for $1.

Read more here.