Supervising demolition worker wasn’t present when wall fatally crushed girl

A worker supposed to oversee demolition work at a site where a wall collapsed, fatally crushing a schoolgirl, was absent at the time of the accident, it has been learned.

The 17-year-old high school girl was crushed to death on 14 October when a wall of the factory being dismantled by demolition firm Maruman Goto Kogyo collapsed on top of the road she was cycling along. The accident occurred while demolition workers were attempting to demolish an elevator tower nearby without supporting the wall with wires or heavy machinery.

Under the Industrial Safety and Health Law, a person qualified to oversee the dismantling of steel-reinforced structures is supposed to be present during such demolition work. But industry sources say that the regulations have lost substance and qualified workers are commonly absent.

Read more here.

Alaska crew asked to demolish three small buildings destroyed a fourth building by mistake.

The Anchorage Daily News reports the fourth building torn down at Russian Jack Springs Park this week was a storage facility for a Girl Scouts of Alaska summer day camp.

Anchorage Parks and Recreation officials had decided to remove three structures in the area that were being vandalized and used for what director John Rodda described as “negative behavior.”

At some point, an Alaska Demolition crew realized they had started to destroy the wrong building. But Rodda said damage was substantial enough to the 16-by-16 foot building that he decided it should be completely torn down.

Read more here.

Investigation underway after demolition worker is killed at chemical plant.

Authorities are investigating an accident at an Illinois chemical plant that’s left an Iowa man dead.

Forty-six-year-old Timothy Shields of Cedar Falls, Iowa, died Wednesday at a Joliet hospital.

The Will County Sheriff’s office says Shields was finishing demolition work at the Oiltanking plant in Channahon when a three metre (10-foot) section of rebar hit him in the forehead, under his hard hat.

An autopsy has cited the accident as his cause of death.

Woman finds newly-bought house being demolished four days after purchase.

A Farmington Hills woman is looking for answers after a home she recently purchased was demolished Saturday.

Susan Tusk purchased a foreclosed home at 20800 Rensselaer St. in Farmington Hills at a foreclosure action for $1,000 last Wednesday. On Saturday, Tusk went to the house to work on it, to find city workers bulldozing the house.

Tusk said she has paperwork that shows she purchased the house from Oakland.

Neighbors said the house burned down two years ago and they complained to the city that it was a dangerous eyesore that needed to come down.

In July, city officials ordered that the owners of four foreclosed houses demolish the properties in the next 60 days, or the city will move in and do it.

Further details and a video can be found here.

Armac Demolition uses fleet of 10 excavators to remove a motorway bridge in a single day.

A team of engineers from Armac Group have demolished a huge motorway bridge that is set to be replaced with a new one within days. A fleet of ten excavators were used to take down the 61 metre bridge over the M56, near Bowdon, Cheshire.

See our picture gallery by clicking on the link to the right of the image above

The 40-year-old bridge was nearing the end of its intended working life and weight restrictions had already been imposed due to safety concerns.

The single-lane flyover is now being replaced with a sturdier two-lane carriageway bridge that is being assembled in an adjacent field and will be hoisted into position at the weekend. The team will then use a crane to lift the 1,800 tonne bridge into place on Saturday, Oct 23.

Paul Hampson, assistant project manager from the Highways Agency, said: “Using his method we can knock down the bridge and clear the debris over the weekend, so the road can be used during the week.

“By constructing the bridge off-site and lowering into place, the work will be carried out much more quickly and it will cut down on the disruption to drivers.”

Read more and view the photo gallery here or watch the brief video – courtesy of John Woodward at C&D Consultancy – below.

Girl crushed by falling wall at Japanese demolition site.

A high school girl was crushed to death in Gifu, Japan after the wall of a metal processing factory she was passing on her way home from school collapsed on top of her.

The exterior wall of the metal processing factory, owned by Kanzen Co., collapsed on the road running along the north side of the factory. The three-story building had been undergoing demolition work as part of a road-expansion project, police said.

About an hour after the wall collapsed, Yukari Kawase, 17, a second-year student at a local high school, was found trapped underneath the rubble. She was rushed to hospital but confirmed dead. Kawase was killed almost instantly, investigators said.

Read the full story here.

After a six-month hiatus, the Demolition Digest blog is back.

The recession has claimed many victims within and around our industry. But few surprised and saddened us more than the (thankfully temporary) demise of the US’ Construction Equipment magazine.

As we mentioned previously, this magazine had long been the industry benchmark; the one by which other construction magazines were measured, with most of them falling a long way short. So we were extremely honoured when we were invited to take our idle ramblings onto the Construction Equipment website last year in our own Demolition Digest blog.

Sadly, the Demolition Digest blog died along with the rest of the Construction Equipment empire when the magazine was closed earlier this year.

But thanks to magazine stalwart Rod Sutton and his Stateside colleagues, Construction Equipment is back, risen like a phoenix from the ashes; and dragging along behind it, like a leaden-footed zombie, is the undead Demolition Digest.

It is our intention that the majority of our equipment-related content will appear on the Demolition Digest; partly because that’s where it belongs but also because, in many areas, Europe is leading the way in demolition equipment innovation.

The first of the reborn Demolition Digest stories takes a closer look at the Volvo/Kocurek joint-venture, zero tailswing, high reach excavator that caused something of a furore when we covered it here a few weeks back, and which is set to cause a similar level of excitement at next month’s Demolition Awards.

We hope you’ll add the Demolition Digest blog to your required reading list and look forward to receiving your feedback.

Bizarre and misleading web post on demolition in the UK.

I am a firm believer that those that can, do; those that can’t just write about it. And, frankly, while I have a good understanding of what item of equipment goes where, and where I probably shouldn’t stand in the midst of a demolition project, I would be the first to admit that I have never (and probably will never) demolish anything in my life.

However, by comparison to the author of this web post, I am not just a considered expert; I am THE Demolition Man.

Apparently – and I am paraphrasing here – “…It is the process of attaching a heavy weight ball to the crane or a loader for demolition that is very usual….” Well, maybe 20 years ago. However, while the author’s knowledge of demolition equipment may be a little outdated, his grasp of the need for personal protective equipment is second to none: “…one has to be very cautious to use hard hats and steel capped boats…”

And yes, that really DOES say boats!!

You can read the rest of this marvelous post in all its strange glory here.

Demolition News brings you the key footage from this week’s NFDC Demolition Day.

National Federation of Demolition Contractors’ chief executive Howarb Button (left) should be feeling rightly pleased with himself right about now. Earlier this year, he came up with the concept of the NFDC Demolition Day; a conference/seminar event to highlight the benefit of using NFDC members to cary out UK demolition work. At the time, he was hoping for “maybe 100 delegates and, perhaps, 10 exhibition stands”.

Fast-forward to Tuesday this week and some 25 exhibitors and more than 220 delegates crammed into the Britannia International Hotel’s Sandringham suite for what must be the largest national demolition event ever outside the US.

And Demolition News was on hand to capture all the key speakers. We have brought you below all the videos that we believe are appropriate for an international audience. But those we have left out for being, perhaps, a little parochial, can be found on the NFDC website here.

NFDC President David Darsey’s welcome address:

NFDC CEO Howard Button – Accredited Site Audit Scheme Overview

John Thoday, The Health & Safety People – Accredited Site Audit Scheme case study

Demolition Day – John Thoday from Mark Anthony on Vimeo.

Giuseppe Panseri, European Demolition Association president – EDA

Demolition Day – Giuseppe Panseri – EDA from Mark Anthony on Vimeo.

Howard Button, NFDC CEO – Annual waste Returns and Recycling Rates

Demolition Day – Waste Returns – Howard Button from Mark Anthony on Vimeo.

David Darsey, NFDC President – Waste Recycling on Europe’s largest demolition site

Demolition Day – Waste Management at Lafarge – David Darsey from Mark Anthony on Vimeo.

Gary Bishop, NFDC vice-president – Waste recycling on small, inner city demolition project

Valerie Stroud, National Secretary, Institute of Demolition Engineers – IDE Overview.

Demolition Day – Valerie Stroud – IDE from Mark Anthony on Vimeo.

Photo Montage of guest speakers, guests and exhibitors

Demolition Day – Photo Montage from Mark Anthony on Vimeo.

Demolition News refutes scurrilous rumours started by leading excavator modifier.

Word has reached our sensitive ears that a certain Kocurek salesman has been casting aspersions about our willingness to participate in any form of manual labour in the preparations for yesterday’s excellent NFDC Demolition Day event.

According to Alistair Janson, “…Demolitionnews.com’s Mark Anthony was also on hand, but when it came to doing any lifting he would suddenly get an urgent text message or phone call that generally lasted as long as the task in hand….”

Now, a lifelong career in trade journalism has armed us with a skin thick enough to be the envy of the average armadillo. But we take enormous exception to any suggestion that we’re in any way lazy.

It is true that the Demolition News mobile phone was quite busy; and we were a little concerned about doing anything that might harm our delicate wordsmith’s hands. But we strongly refute any suggestions that we were less than helpful.

Janson will be hearing from our lawyers (well, he would if we had one!!)