Contractor fined over lack of supervision that led to roof fall.

A demolition company has appeared in court for failing to provide its employees with a safe system of work during the bulldozing of a block of garages.

H. Cope and Sons Ltd was contracted to demolish around 1100 council-owned garages across Lincolnshire. The garages, which were used by council-house tenants, were deemed structurally unsafe and were being knocked down in order for new garages to be built.

On 13 January 2009, two contractors from H. Cope and Sons were demolishing a block of 21 garages at Walmsgate Place in Grimsby, when one of the workers fell through a garage roof. The garages, which were situated on a slope, were split into groups of three with a step on the roof joining each set with the next group.

One of the men removed the asbestos flashing, which covered the steps, and leant over the edge of the building to drop the sheets into a skip. But he lost his balance and fell backwards through the remaining roof sheets, landing on the ground seven feet below. He broke his right leg and wrist, which has required him to undergo several operations to insert pins and plates into the limbs. He has been unable to return to work owing to his injuries.

HSE inspector, Dave Bradley, told SHP that the firm had prepared a method statement, which indicated that the work should be done from a tower scaffold. However this had not been communicated to the men, who subsequently created their own method of work without any supervision.

Read more here.

Security company points finger of blame over Chinese demolition beating death.

Members of a security guard company in north China’s Shanxi Province yesterday pleaded not guilty and denied beating a man to death over a demolition dispute, saying they merely followed the government orders.

Wu Ruijun, who ran the Qixing Security Guard Company, said the company was owned by Jinsheng Township in Taiyuan, the provincial capital. Officials indicated “they can break protesters’ legs or arms” before carrying out the demolition

But the township authorities denied the allegation, China Youth Daily reported today. The company’s workers were facing charges of intentional injury and vandalism.

Read more here.

Another giant building begins to fall in Tennessee.

Demolition work has begun on another giant building at a former uranium enrichment plant in West Oak Ridge. This time, it’s the 13 hectare (32-acre) K-33 Building on the western side of the former K-25 Site.

As of early January, about 65 percent of K-33’s siding had been removed and roughly eight percent of the two-story building had been demolished, U.S. Department of Energy spokesman Michael Koentop said. The project began last September with workers clearing an 24 metre (80-foot) perimeter around the 12,0,000 square metre (1.3 million-square-foot) building. “We’re on schedule,” Koentop said. “It’s a real success story for us.”

Demolition work is funded by federal economic stimulus funding – the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – and could be completed by 1 March 2012. Debris will be hauled to DOE’s Environmental Management Waste Management Facility on Bear Creek Road.

DOE announced in April 2010 that it had awarded a $51 million contract for the demolition work to LATA-Sharp Remediation Services LLC of Westerville, Ohio. The project employs 260 workers.

Read more here.

Failure to report asbestos was “pretty much a paperwork issue…”

A Middleboro demolition company has been fined for failing to report asbestos found in underground ductwork on a site in Worcester.

Costello Dismantling Company has been fined a combined $45,000 along with J.H. Lynch & Sons, Inc., of Cumberland, R.I., according to a statement Monday from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The fine was assessed because the contractors did not report asbestos that was found in underground ductwork at a site in Worcester where a Wal-Mart, Olive Garden and other retail stores were built in 2008, according to DEP spokesman Edmund J. Coletta Jr.

John Hastings, Costello’s chief financial officer, said the matter was “pretty much a paperwork issue.”

Read more here.

DemolitionNews is up against the industry big guns in industry awards.

We are delighted to reveal that DemolitionNews.com has been nominated for a coveted industry award.

The Be2Awards 2011 best ‘old media/new media’ category has been created as a reflection of the changing nature of the publishing world. Traditional print titles have had to adapt their activities to cater for the explosion in internet use, and this award will go to the publisher or publication that has best adapted to the opportunities delivered by social media.

We are up against some seriously stiff competition including Construction News and our friends over at ConstructionEnquirer and we know we’re outgunned. Construction News, for example, is a multi-million pound operation employing dozens of editorial and advertising personnel to produce content for a readership that runs into tens of thousands. DemolitionNews.com, meanwhile, is effectively run by one person and has a considerably smaller, highly specialised readership.

“We know we’re hopelessly outgunned. We serve an industry that comprises just a few thousand individuals while Construction News and ConstructionEnquirer have tens and even hundreds of thousands of loyal followers,” says DemolitionNews.com founder and editor Mark Anthony. “To even be nominated in the same category as media organisations of that size and stature is a huge honour.”

To add your vote, please click here and scroll to the foot of the page.

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.