Alcoa earmarks two smelting plants for demolition.

Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. plans to raze two idled smelting facilities, according to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Slated for demolition are the 60,000-tonne-per-year Badin Works smelter in Badin, N.C., and the 195,000-tonne-per-year Eastalco smelter in Frederick, Md.

According to Alcoa’s regulatory filings, the permanent shuttering of the two plants will result in an after-tax charge of $120 million in the first quarter, in addition to $10 million to $15 million in demolition-related costs.

Read more here.

The latest edition of Demolition & Dismantling magazine is available to read online.

Although traditional paper copies are still winging their way to Demolition & Dismantling readers in the UK and beyond, demolition professionals can get their quarterly fix online.

The latest edition is available to view below.

Work stops as DoE seeks new contractor at former world’s largest building.

We reported earlier today that Bechtel Jacobs, the US Department of Energy’s contractor of choice on what is probably the world’s largest demolition project, has taken a step back from front line demolition at the former K-25 uranium processing plant at Oak Ridge. But it seems that this is merely the tip of an iceberg of Biblical proportions now facing the DoE.

A cold, wet winter has further complicated operations at the site. “If it rains on Monday, it rains inside for three more days,’ John Eschenberg, the U.S. Department of Energy’s environmental cleanup manager, said at a workshop last week. Eschenberg was referring to K-25’s sieve-like roof. But rain is just one of the many obstacles faced by contractors trying to bring down the massive structure, which was built during World War II to process uranium for atomic bombs.

Demolition of K-25’s west wing was completed in late January, but tearing down the rest of the milelong, U-shaped building will have to wait for at least another year. DOE is changing contractors, and Bechtel Jacobs Co. — the government’s cleanup chief in Oak Ridge since 1998 — plans to spend the rest of its tenure taking samples, dismantling high-risk equipment and doing other ‘heavy lifting’ to prepare for eventual demolition by the next contractor.

The yet-to-be-selected contractor is scheduled to take over July 1, 2011, and Eschenberg said demolition of K-25 — and its nearby sister facility, K-27 — will be the agency’s top priority.

The Oak Ridge project has proved to be enormously difficult and incredibly expensive — spending may already have topped $1 billion.

Read the full story here.

Lake East medical center moves step closer to demolition.

Painesville Council now has the money to knock down the vacant Lake East Medical Center. The city received the signed agreement, regarding the Clean Ohio Revitalization Funds Round 7 that came from the Ohio Department of Development.

During council’s regular meeting Monday night, it authorized bids to go out for the hospital’s demolition. Although the city received $2,052,408 in grant money, the demolition and asbestos abatement is estimated at $1.9 million.

The project will be advertised for bid on April 22 with the opening May 20. The demolition portion of the project is expected to be completed within seven months of the award of the contract, according to city documents.

Read more here.

Bechtel Jacobs announce end to its demolition work for Department of Energy.

Jim Thiesing, vice president and K-25 project manager for Bechtel Jacobs Co., confirmed today there is no plan for BJC to do any more demolition work under the company’s current contract with the Dept. of Energy. Bechtel Jacobs, according to Thiesing, will do as much “heavy lifting” as possible to prepare the remainder of the mammoth K-25 facility for demolition by the next contactor to take over the job, July 1, 2011.

Demolition of west wing of the mile-long, multi-story structure, which was the world’s largest building under roof when built during World War II, was completed Jan. 20 as part of BJC’s long-running contract with DOE. Since then, the 800-member workforce assembled by Bechtel Jacobs has been doing pre-demolition work on the north and east sections of K-25.

The vast K-25 project has not been without its challenges, as we have reported previously, although it is not yet clear whether the unforeseen delays over safety concerns have prompted Bechtel’s decision.

Read more here.

City officials in denial as nine-storey “deathtrap” stands proud over Calcutta.

It was the subject of no less than three demolition orders in 1996; it has been described by inspectors as a “deathtrap supported by weak columns and beams”. And yet the nine-storey building that stands at 174 CR Avenue in Calcutta apparently doesn’t exist. At least that is the stance taken by local city officials who fear that an admission of the building’s continued existence would also be an admission of its own inability to demolish the dangerous structure.

The city corporation doesn’t collect tax from the building, and shop owners do not hold trade licences. The city stopped issuing licences from 1996 because, again, that would acknowledge the building’s existence.

Rabindra Gupta, office-bearer of the tenants’ association, says: “The association maintains the building. No one pays rent, since technically there is no structure.”

Read the full story here.

Asbestos concerns temporarily halt long-awaited demolition in Detroit.

It was heralded as a plan that would rejuvenate some of Detroit’s most dilapidated properties while giving a welcome shot in the arm for the city’s demolition business. But the plan to raze some 3,000 homes was brought to a shuddering but hopefully temporary halt after just one abandoned building was pulled down following the interjection of a state asbestos inspector.

Thomas Vincent of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality shut down crews working in southwest Detroit after they finished razing one house on the city’s list, the Detroit Free Press reported Friday.

The owner of the wrecking firm hired by the city said he had secured the appropriate permits for the demolition work but apparently there was some miscommunication between Detroit and the state of Michigan.

“The state wanted to know about some environmental issues,” said Ashok Badhwar of Glo Wrecking Co.

Read more here.

This is a subject that is also addressed on Construction Equipment’s Demolition Digest blog.

High reach excavator converter combats vibration with rubberised boom.

Kocurek, the company that pioneered the development of the high reach demolition excavator that is the mainstay of most major European demolition equipment fleets, has unveiled its latest innovation: the Wobble-Boom.

The company says that the Wobble-Boom is manufactured from a unique steel/latex alloy that provides the boom with unprecedented levels of vibration dampening that in turn leads to greater levels of operator comfort.

“Our traditional steel boom machines have always been well-received by owners and operators but we have always been aware of the need to reduce the levels of vibration transmitted back to the machine’s operator via the high reach boom,” says general manager Brian Carroll. “Our research and development team have been working for a number of years on a variety of potential solutions including different mounting systems and in-boom shock absorbers. However, when we were introduced to the Looflipra rubberised steel, we knew we’d found the answer we’d been looking for.”

The boom, which is currently available with a 40 metre work height that can be stretched to 48 metres for work on taller structures, has already been tested thoroughly by a number of the UK’s leading demolition contractors. And, according to Carroll, these trials have already thrown up some additional benefits.

“When we created the Wobble-Boom, we envisaged it being used in the same way as a traditional steel boom. But excavator operators are nothing if not innovative,” Carroll continues. “We trialled the system on one particularly tough building where the attachment was really struggling to make an impression. So the operator used a tow rope and a team of burly site workers to pull the boom back before catapulting it into the building. The result was devastating, and the “boing” noise it made when the guys let it go could be heard for miles around. Local residents thought it was a bouncing bomb going off.”

A further benefit of the boom is its ease of transport, Carroll says. “Traditional high reach booms are notoriously tricky to load onto cradles and low loaders,” he adds. “But the Wobble-Boom is simply rolled up. It’s taken a bit of practice but our team at the factory can now squeeze the 40 metre Wobble-Boom into a Smart Car.”

Brian Carroll admits that the Wobble-Boom is not ideal for every application but believes the increasing size of high-rise structures will require this innovative approach in the future. “You only have to look at a structure like the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. No demolition contractor is going to want a 1,000 metre high reach boom; they just wouldn’t get the utilisation,” he concludes. “But by using a larger Wobble-Boom machine, they could use a 200 metre machine stretched to reach the upper floors. Admittedly, the attachment would be very small as all that stretching would make the boom very thin indeed. And they would have to work quickly before the boom reverted to its original length. But one thing’s for sure – The operator would not be subjected to any unnecessary vibration.”

FOX 4 cameras have taken a last look around the Texas Stadium before it is imploded.

It is now just 12 days until the Texas Stadium will be imploded. And FOX 4 cameras have been granted one last look around the former home of the Dallas Cowboys.

In part one of this video tour, FOX 4 gives you a look inside what’s left of the iconic structure, including the now-empty “Ring of Honor”, a view of the 40-foot high mountain of fill dirt that now covers the field, and a sight that hasn’t been seen since the earliest days of the stadium’s construction in the 1970s.

In part two, FOX 4 gives you a look at what’s left of the press box, the amazing view of the tunnel through which the Cowboys took the field, and something that was added to the stadium after its construction that’s making the demolition more complicated.

Hydraulic hammers called in after three blasts fail to fell bridge.

Demolition contractors were forced to call in the hydraulic hammer reinforcements after three attempted explosive blasts failed to drop a bridge spanning the Salt Fork Creek.

The warning siren sounded Wednesday afternoon, March 10; a worker called out, “Fire in the hole!” and the explosives planted in the Eastwood bridge over Salt Fork Creek were detonated. When the smoke cleared, the bridge was still standing.

Disappointed demolition crews started drilling more holes, reportedly working into the night and again early Thursday, March 11.

About 9 a.m. Thursday, more explosives were detonated, and although the bridge was starting to look a rough around the edges, it was still standing.

Friday morning, the crews took one last crack at knocking the bridge down with explosives.

“It’s getting so broken up now it’s hard to find a place to drill on it safely,” said Shannon Jenkins of Lehman Construction before the final blast. “We’re going to try to blow the feet clear out from underneath it. But there’s no guarantee it’s going to fall down this time.”

Jenkins said the explosives company, Phillip Davis Controlled Blasting, wasn’t doing anything wrong in its efforts to bring the old bridge down.

Possibly true – But having run out of bridge in which to drill holes in which to place the explosives, the company eventally called for the cavalry and finished the job using excavators equipped with hydraulic hammers.

The catalogue of failed implosions can be viewed below: