AED reviewing situation after stack falls in wrong direction.

The former Ohio Edison Mad River Power Plant’s 85 metre (275-foot) tower came down on Wednesday. But initial reports that the blast knocked it the wrong direction. The tower was supposed to fall to the northeast, but ended up going to the south — knocking down several nearby power lines.

The demolition company overseeing the project, Advanced Explosives Demolition, Inc., is reviewing the demolition to see what happened.

Power is currently out on the west side of Springfield, from Western Avenue westward. Klosterman’s Bakery is currently without power, as well as a Speedway store and traffic lights are not working. Police are on hand directing traffic.

You can read more here.

Authorities warn against public viewing of Canberra bridge this weekend.

A bridge from the Glenloch Interchange near Yarramundi Reach is being demolished with explosives on Saturday. Two bridges were made redundant when the Glenloch Interchange was upgraded as part of the Gungahlin Drive Extension. One of the bridges was destroyed two years ago and the second will be demolished on Saturday.

Roads ACT director Tony Gill says a one kilometre exclusion zone will be set up, and the Black Mountain Nature Reserve will be closed to the public, as well as parts of Weston Park. He says the destruction of the bridge will be a big exercise.

“The logistics of it are fairly significant and obviously there’s the safety to the general public which is a major consideration, hence why we haven’t gone out of our way about advertising the fact that the bridge is being demolished,” he said.

Mr Gill is urging people to stay well away from the area. “It’s not a public spectacle and public safety is a paramount consideration,” he said. “We don’t want people looking at it for their own safety.

“We just have to go back not too far in Canberra’s recent history (to learn) about the consequences of demolition activity”, he said referring to the tragic death of 12-year-old Katie Bender, who was killed by a piece of flying debris during the implosion of the old Canberra Hospital in 1997.

Read more here.

300-room wing of Tropicana Hotel falls in controlled explosion.

Part of the Tropicana Hotel & Casino is now history. The latest phase in the resort’s $180 million makeover went off with a bang Tuesday morning as the ‘300 wing’ tumbled to the ground.

The 2:30 am implosion makes way for a new entrance and parking garage, and several additions including a new race and sports book and easier access to a new restaurant, nightclub, and cafe.

The Tropicana’s owners say they didn’t want the implosion to get a lot of fanfare. Instead, they want to focus on turning the 53-year-old resort into a ‘Generation X’ hot spot.

Exclusive photo of work in progress at Glasgow’s Plean Street contract.

Fresh back from acting as judge, guest speaker and fashion icon at the Demolition Awards, C&D Consultancy‘s John Wodward has headed straight for Scotland or, more specifically, the Plean Street contract in Glasgow.

C&D client Technical Demolition Services (TDS) is using one of the UK’s largest high reach excavators to demolish a tower block that Woodward says will be down in time for Christmas.

Either way, it’s a good excuse to bring you this exclusive photo of the 777 high reach in action.

Demolition experts astounded that church stayed up during New Zealand quake.

The owner a historic Christchurch building that iss being controversially pulled down says it is a miracle it didn’t collapse during the earthquake. The demolition has exposed less steel in structure than originally thought; despite this, opponents still desperately want to save it.

Three weeks into the demolition and the interior of Manchester Courts is finally exposed. “It’s a bit of a miracle that it is still up it should be on the deck,” says Alan Edge of Southern Demolition.

A closer inspection shows how the brick columns are ready to crumble; the historic eight story building has much less steel reinforcing in its bones than first thought. “The concrete is not even fixed to the walls; they haven’t even run any steel runners down to the bricks, the concrete is just held by the roof section,” Mr Edge says.

The revelation has even astounded its owner. “I am a bit surprised; I would thought the internal steel would have been a bit more robust and more in there but I guess it reinforces what we thought the building was severely unstable,” Richard Peebles says.

Read more here.

Podcast interview with NDA CEO Mike Taylor on the association’s high reach guidance.

The website ForConstructionPros.com has produced an audio podcast featuring National Demolition Association chief executive Mike Taylor who talks about the new high reach guidance notes produced by the association in conjunction with the UK’s National Federation of Demolition Contractors.

While we’re trying to embed the audio here on DemolitionNews.com, you can check it out here

Last week’s Demolition Awards provided an insight into the psyche of the industry.

For more years than I care to remember, I have watched the coverage of the Oscars ceremony, partly because I love cinema but also because I harbour a sadistic side that enjoys watching famous actors and actresses struggling to retain fixed grins when they hear that they haven’t actually won a trophy. But these being professional actors, their every move, smile, tear and gasp has been rehearsed, honed and perfected to ensure that an unplanned show of emotion doesn’t damage their public persona.

Demolition contractors, however, are not generally blessed in the artifice department. And so the immediate aftermath of last Friday’s Demolition Awards provided opportunity to witness raw emotion on display.

There were normally reserved demolition professionals whooping with delight when their name was called out; there was the literal hanging of heads from those whose awards journey ended at the shortlist stage; and, unfortunately, there were a few who immediately cited a lack of independence within the judging panel as the only possible explanation for their own lack of success (although quite how organisers KHL could have made their multi-national, multi-discipline judging panel any more independent remains something of a mystery).

It is worth noting, however, the primary purpose of these (and many other) industry awards. They are designed not to promote a particular company, brand or product but to promote and recognise best practice.

And, for me, three reactions on the night really stood out. John Cuddy of shortlisted Cuddy Group said that he was incredibly proud that his company had even made it onto the shortlist, particularly in light of the level of global competition on display. Noel McLean of Armac Group was still in shock several hours later at having seen off such stiff competition to clinch the Civils category title.

But our personal favourite came from Brian Carroll of excavator modifier Kocurek Excavators. Having seen sometime business partner Liebherr win the award for Innovation – Custom Machine, Carroll said, simply: “We will be here next year, and we’re determined to win.”

OK, it’s not quite Rudyard Kipling’s “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster. And treat those two impostors just the same….” But based on that level of determination, I certainly wouldn’t bet against Kocurek bagging an award in 2011.

Exclusive interview with Demo Diva Simone Bruni, attending her first Demolition Summit.

We caught up with Demo Diva Simone Bruni, a longtime friend of DemolitionNews.com, as she made her first professional appearance on this side of the pond. Having covered her back-story in a previous audio podcast, we asked her what she made of the 2010 Demolition Summit and Awards, and what she hoped to take back to the US with her.

Exclusive video featuring all the winners of the 2010 Demolition Awards.

For those of you that couldn’t be there (and believe me, you missed a truly great event) we have produced the following exclusive video featuring all the speakers from this weekend’s Demolition Summit, and all the winners of the Demolition Awards.

Congratulations to organisers KHL for a job well done; and to the winners that rightly take their place among the demolition world elite.

The annual Demolition Awards that are taking place NOW at the Okura Hotel in Amsterdam have named Erith Group as the 2010 Demolition Contractor of the Year.