Should these beautiful train stations REALLY have fallen to the wrecking ball?

As someone who derives his living from the demolition industry, I am generally of the belief that this industry makes progress possible, clearing the landscape of the old to make way for the new.

However, as this excellent post from The Infrastructurist points out, there are some buildings that, perhaps, should be spared the attentions of the wrecking ball, particularly considering what progress held in store for them.

Read the full story here. Is this really progress?

Eight men indicted over extortion linked to World Trade Center debris removal.

An eight-count indictment was unsealed on March 9, 2010 in Brooklyn federal court on charges of kickbacks and extortion related to demolition work at the World Trade Center Construction site in New York. Eight defendants were charged, including ” Theodore Persico, Jr., Michael Persico, Thomas Petrizzo, Edward Garofalo, Jr., James Bombino, Louis Romeo, Alicia Dimichelle, and Mike LNU. The defendants were charged variously with racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, extortion, and embezzlement of union benefit funds. The defendants in the case were arrested earlier in the day on March 9, 2010.

The indictment and detention memorandum filed by the government on March 9, 2010 alleges that Theodore Persico, Jr. is an administration member of the Colombo organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra. Thomas Petrizzo is a Colombo family soldier. Michael Persico, Edward Garofalo and James Bombino are Colombo family associates. . The indictment is the product of a multi-year investigation in which the FBI used a cooperating witness to infiltrate the Colombo family and make hundreds of consensual recordings.

The Colombo family allegedly used a trucking company under their control, All Around Trucking, in their kickback and extortion scheme. All Around Trucking was used for debris removal as a subcontractor or Testa Corporation, a demolition contractor headquartered near Boston, Massachusetts. The Colombo family executed their scheme at the World Trade Center construction site and the Newtown Creek wastewater plant on the border between Brooklyn and Queens.

Read the full story here.

A&R Demolition starts work on demolition of Corpus Christi stadium.

Local residents have hung green ribbons on the fence surrounding the site, but the demolition company hired by the city of Corpus Christi has started work ont he demolition of a stadium that once played home to an Elvis Presley concert.

The contractor secured the area yesterday in order to make it a safe environment when crews begin to bring in equipment. They’ll begin on Monday by removing asbestos from inside. The company was hired by the city last month at a cost of nearly $600,000.

Further details can be found here or, alternatively, you can watch the kiii TV news report below:

Kraft Foods announce winner of contest who will press button at Texas Stadium.

An 11-year-old Dallas-area boy will trigger the implosion of Texas Stadium.

Casey Rogers, a sixth-grader from Terrell, got the honor by winning a Kraft Foods essay contest for kids who have made a difference in their communities. The implosion is scheduled for April 11.

The announcement comes just days after a group of US physicians made a counter-sponsorship offer intended to draw attention to the high fat content of Kraft’s cheese-based products.

Read more here.

Simulation from Fabio Bruno Construcoes shows how prison implosion will proceed.

On Saturday this week, an eight building prison complex in Rio, Brazil will be imploded. The contract will be carried out by our friends at Fabio Bruno Construcoes and a simulation of the implosion has already been created by another friend of Demolition News, Applied Science International.

We will, of course, bring you further coverage of this contract when it is carried out. But if the simulation is anything to go by, this promises to be a truly impressive series of blasts:

Latest death associated with enforced demolition in China is another stain on industry.

This industry of ours has a lot with which to contend. For all the skill that goes into the safe deconstruction of any building, our business is seen as destructive, noisy, dusty and somehow uncontrolled. This is an image that is not helped by the frightful safety record in some countries around the world where, sadly, site deaths are still perceived as “par for the course”.

However, the enforced demolition of homes and properties in China has placed upon our global industry a lasting stain that may never be erased.

We have already seen one person die having set themselves on fire in protest against unlawful demolition. We have received reports of intimidation, threats and beatings at the hands of Chinese demolition contractors that are refusing to let a few local residents stand between them and their next pay cheque. And now comes news that an elderly woman has died having been beaten and then buried alive for daring to stand in the way of what the Chinese government would have us believe is progress.

Of course, the words that you are currently reading will make little impact upon the people of China. This website is, sadly, not published in any Chinese language or dialect and, given my comments above, it would be censored immediately by a Chinese government that still picks and chooses what its citizens can and cannot read.

But let me make one thing absolutely clear. In the future, whenever I mention the term “global demolition industry”, I am excluding the kind of work currently being undertaken against the wishes of the Chinese people.

This is not the demolition industry I recognise or know, nor is it one with which I would want to be associated.

Excellent time-lapse video of Scottish demolition contract by Reigart.

On the face of it, the contract to demolish a pair of isolated three-storey buildings in Easterhouse, Scotland was not the most photogenic location for a time-lapse video. But as this footage beautifully illustrates, looks can be deceiving.

This video captures the entire project from the arrival of men and machines on the site to the final stages of the clean-up operations. And anyone that has spent any time in Scotland will certainly appreciate the fact that the video ends with an all-too-familiar snow flurry.

Physicians table dietary counter-offer to sponsor Texas Stadium implosion.

If I had a pound for every time I could have started a story with the phrase “only in America”, I’d have, well, a few pounds by now. But the latest turn in the Texas Stadium implosion sponsorship saga really does belong in the file marked “Uniquely US”.

It is unusual enough for a major food manufacturer to sponsor an implosion in the first place and, let’s face it, Kraft’s cheese products are not the first thing you’d normally associate with an impending demolition contract. But now even that pales with the news that a counter offer has been made to sponsor the implosion; one that highlights the potential hazards of consuming the Kraft product.

A national group of physicians is offering the city of Irving $75,000 to drop Kraft as its sponsor for the upcoming Texas Stadium implosion. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine claims the maker’s boxed dinners and cheese products is using the spectacle to market high-fat products to children.

“We’re concerned because of the childhood obesity epidemic,” PCRM spokesman Patrick Sullivan told The 33 News. “Unfortunately, Kraft makes a lot of high-fat food products.” Sullivan added that Kraft’s flagship item, Velveeta, is more than 60 percent fat.

Kraft has not responded to a call for comment this afternoon.

The city of Irving solicited sponsorships for the April 11 implosion of the stadium. Kraft won the bid and agreed to pay Irving a $75,000 sponsorship fee for charities selected by the city. The physicians committee will says it will match the $75,000 sponsorship fee — as long as Irving drops Kraft, and the city hangs a banner reading: “Cheese Really Blows You Up.”

Read the full story here.

Video shows demolition of bridge over Britain’s busiest motorway.

Our thanks again to our friends at DemolishDismantle for bringing this excellent video to our attention.

80-year old bridge dropped into Meramec River.

Crews began the demolition of the old Gravois Road Bridge in St Louis earlier today, sending the span into the Meramec river below. The bridge, which linked Fenton and Sunset Hills, will be replaced with a new one by next spring.

The old bridge was more than 80 years old. It was closed for safety reasons in August 2007. After the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, inspectors here in Missouri said the Gravois Road Bridge was unsafe.

While we’re awaiting a video in embeddable format, please click here to see the bridge’s last moments.