Clear Site enlists webcam technology to broadcast mill demolition live.

Clear Site Industrial has been hired as the contractor for demolition of the former Spartan Grain Mill. This demolition project will make way for future development in an area known as “The Grain District”, an emerging entertainment & art district west of Morgan Square in Downtown Spartanburg. The old mill site is large enough to allow for a variety of development, such as apartments, townhomes, and live/work units. To give a sense of the mill site’s redevelopment potential, the City of Spartanburg’s Masterplan depiction includes 80 apartments, 37 townhomes or live/work units, and 1,858 square metre (20,000 square feet) of mixed-use space for retail or office uses.

Snyder Investments, Inc. has enlisted the expertise of Clear Site Industrial to perform the hands on demolition and disposal of the structures. Some, of which, are over 40 metres (120 feet) in height. The team is also aiming to divert 99%+ of the demolished material from landfills.

To watch the demolition live via webcam, log on to www.ClearSiteIndustrial.com

Well-known UK industry figure seriously ill in hospital.

The UK’s National Federation of Demolition Contractors is reporting that Coleman & Company‘s Dave Coleman is currently in hospital with septicaemia.

Dave went to A&E at Good Hope Hospital on Wednesday last week with a swollen leg, temperature and stomach pains. He was admitted to a private ward before being transferred to the Intensive Therapy Unit.

His current condition is stable and during the past 24 hours he has started to take on food. His blood pressure and heart rate are also stabilising; both postive signs. His body now has to fight the infection but, as those of you that know him, Dave is a fighter and a tough man – He’s tenacious and not the type to take no for an answer. It is these qualities that he will draw upon to fight the infection.

Read more here.

Lucky escape after Wiltshire building collapses during demolition.

Disaster was narrowly averted after a section of a building being demolished collapsed into a public thoroughfare full of shoppers. An estimated 10 metre piece of the former British Home Stores (Bhs) building broke away spilling brickwork onto the pavement and causing panic in The Parade at about 10.30 am yesterday.

The building is being demolished to make way for a number of shops. Although no one was injured in the incident, workmen said “death or maiming” was only averted by the safety scaffolding, which contained the wall and held up under the intense pressure.

The scaffolding was held up, in part, by a lamp post which was bent during the incident. “That scaffolding has saved lives,” said Cliff Flanagan, from Skanska Paving. “If it wasn’t for the strength of it all that debris would be in the street where people were walking.”

The contractors, Sisk UK, said the company had been conducting “controlled demolition” during the collapse.
Ian Wright, the company’s national business development manager, said: “The part of the building, a roof slab, that came off was to come down in a controlled way, but it came down unexpectedly. The cladding did its job and contained what had fallen. The HSE has been working with our team today. We will be investigating and working overnight to make it safe.”

Read the full story here.

NASA to demolish Kennedy Space Center towers.

The servicing towers at the Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39B will be demolished this summer to ready the complex for an uncertain future.

The $1.3 million job was originally planned to begin outfitting the seaside launch pad to host Ares 1 rockets, the booster NASA was planning to carry crews to orbit after the space shuttle’s retirement. NASA is going ahead with plans to bring down the fixed and rotating service structures at pad 39B, even though the Ares 1 rocket and the entire Constellation program are being axed.

Officials say they are continuing with the pad facelift to prepare the facility to support future commercial or heavy-lift rocket development work. But the identity of the historic pad’s next user is unknown.

New York-based LVI Services Inc., will begin work in late June or early July. The demolition will not use explosives like those used on other abandoned launch pads, but will be dismantled in a “very controlled” process as workers take apart the towers one piece at a time.

Read the full story here.

Demolition underway at major UK steelworks.

Ron Hull Demolition has begun work at the former Outokumpu steelworks near Sheffield. Production ceased at the facility some two years ago and the site was handed over last month. Following the completion of preparation work, specialist teams have now started taking down the former mills and workshops.

The project is expected to take around twelve weeks in preparation for a multi-million pound redevelopment.

Ron Hull Operations Director Martin Wall said: “From our point of view the operation is relatively straightforward. All of the steel making machinery and equipment has now been removed from the buildings after being bought by firms around the world, so we’re dealing with empty shells.

“The site does have important gas and electricity supplies running through, not to mention a high pressure water main, but that’s nothing we’re not used to dealing with and we are not anticipating any problems.

“The most spectacular part of the demolition will be the removal of the 100-foot-high furnace tower. At one stage we did consider explosive demolition but because of the proximity of a railway line and buildings not scheduled for demolition we are bringing in a high reach machine to take it down traditionally.”

In line with modern demolition practice, almost all the materials recovered from the site are to be recycled.

Read the full story here.

Builder behind McGuire Apartments says there’s no need to demolish the block.

Just 24 hours after it was announced that the 9-year old McGuire Apartments in Belltown, Seattle were to face demolition due to structural faults and high repair costs, the builder behind the 25-storey high rise has claimed that demolition is not, in fact, necessary.

“Our experts … have conducted sophisticated, thorough testing of the building components at issue and determined that it is entirely safe,… ” a spokeswoman for McCarthy Building Companies of St. Louis said in an e-mail on Monday. “With reasonable remediation, maintenance and monitoring, long-term ongoing operations could continue.”

The owner and builder have been mired in litigation over the building’s construction for more than three years.

Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development said in a letter to Kennedy Friday that it had reviewed engineering reports on the McGuire’s structural problems and agreed the building is deteriorating and should be vacated.

Read the full story here.

Tenders close as fears grow that wind could fell Athlone cooling towers.

Emergency measures have been taken to close the N2 and protect people when the north-westerly wind is stronger than 65km/h – for fear that a strong wind could cause the Athlone cooling towers to be blown over, and that parts of it could fall on this busy highway.

The tenders for the demolition of the two cooling towers of the redundant Athlone power station closed on Friday.

Clive Justus, mayoral committee member for utility services, said the winter wind from the north-west is usually stronger than the south-easterly. At the Athlone cooling towers, this north-westerly wind blows towards the N2. “With a wind speed of over 85km/h, the towers could collapse. We don’t want it to be blown over and have pieces falling on the road,” said Justus.

The provisional demolition date is May 30, which is less than two weeks before the start of the World Cup Soccer Tournament. One of FIFA’s requirements is that the N2 in particular – as an important route between the Cape Town International Airport and the CBD – must be in perfect condition.

Read the full story here.

Seattle apartment block faces demolition less than a decade after it was built.

Hundreds of residents are being unexpectedly forced out of a 9-year-old Seattle highrise after engineers found extensive structural defects so severe that the building will have to be demolished.

Those who live and work in the area said the scaffolding around the McGuire Apartments has been up so long, it’s become a fixture in the Belltown neighborhood. Renters in the building said when the property management company asked to meet with residents over the weekend, many expected an update on the repair work. Instead, they were told they had until the end of the year to vacate the 25-story building, which will have to be dismantled.

In a statement, the building owner, the Carpenter Tower LLC, blamed “extensive construction defects which are financially impractical to repair.”

Engineers said the problems are caused by the steel reinforcement used to reinforce the concrete. The cable ends weren’t sealed properly and then rusted and corroded.

Read the full story or watch the KIRO TV video here.

Demolition companies warned over dust emissions from house demolition.

City officials in Evansville have written two warning letters in the last several weeks to demolition contractors for failing to control dust stirred up while razing houses.

Dona Bergman, director of the Evansville Environmental Protection Agency, said crews hired for demolition work are expected to spray water on structures they knock down. That helps control dust, which is likely to contain particles of lead paint and other toxic substances if it is coming from old houses.

Bergman said workers from her office responded to the complaints immediately after learning of them. When they arrived at the demolition sites, they found no evidence of dust being stirred up, but did find the sites weren’t being wetted properly. So they issued warning letters.

“We have gone around and double-checked on those properties several times,” Bergman said. “And if we receive any other citizens’ complaints, we’ll get back out there and check on it.”

Bergman said the fine for breaking the rules starts at $50 a day for each violation and can rise as high as $7,500 a day for each violation. “Just the threat of that gets people’s attention,” she said.

Read the full story here.

It’s been a long time coming; but the Texas Stadium is finally down.

The former home of the Dallas Cowboys was imploded earlier today; if you didn’t get to see it live, here’s the first of the footage.