Stockton eyesore building to be demolished

A 50-year-old derelict office block on Teesside which has been vandalised over the years is to be demolished.

After years of legal wrangling, Stockton Council is to bulldoze Billingham House and will charge the cost to its owner Bizzy B Management.

The former ICI headquarters, in Belasis Avenue, has been attacked by arsonists and vandals over the years and is considered an eyesore by locals.

A council spokesman said: “The Council has been working with Bizzy B Management Ltd for a number of years and has previously taken legal action following repeated concerns from members of the public about the state of the building.

It will be pulled down in the New Year when a contractor has been found.

Read more here.

A look back to explosive demolition in the “good ol’ days”

Based upon the reaction we received following the reproduction of an old edition of the Demolition & Dismantling magazine (and there are more editions to come), there is a great appetite out there for demolition nostalgia.

Those that were lucky enough to attend the recent Institute of Demolition Engineers Autumn conference in London will know that vice-president and events co-ordinator John Woodward had organised a look back at an explosive demolition project from the 1970s (1977 to be precise). The presentation came in the shape of a video salvaged from obscurity by demolition consultant Bruce Atkinson FIDE of DemConsult.

Bruce takes up the story:

The following film is a non-technical home movie of a single day operation to demolish a large block of flats in Birkenhead. It takes place in 1977 at a time when the current reams of regulations and legislation now governing the industry, and captures the atmosphere of the time with long hair, flared trousers, wide lapels.
This was also a time when political correctness had not yet been invented, and the industry inhabited a number of larger than life characters. There were no mobile phones, no site phones, no site audits, method statements, risk assessments, design calculations or drawings. This was a time when fuel and oxygen was ordered via the nearest pay phone and wages were collected from the local Post Office at the end of the week.

The film shows a typical demolition operation of its day, covering a whole range of emotions: anticipation; panic, tension; and finally relief.

Having now watched the film a few times, we’re certainly relieved that blasting practices and health and safety have improved in the past three decades; and we’re even more relieved that those horrendous moustaches were consigned to the dark corners of fashion history. Enjoy.

Day Trip to Birkenhead from Mark Anthony on Vimeo.

Demolition of Scarborough’s Athletic Ground in Seamer Road imminent.

A tender has been put out by Scarborough Council inviting companies to submit bids to level the much-loved stadium, where football was first played way back in 1898.

The news puts an abrupt end to any lingering faint hopes that football could one day return to the venue.

Since Scarborough FC folded in 2007, the once-proud arena has fallen into a state of disrepair, and been subjected to regular bouts of vandalism.

The council bought the stadium in 2008 for £1.335 million, but Hilary Jones, the council’s strategic director, said that safety concerns meant the local authority had no other option than to bring an end to well over a century of history.

“We have to make it safe, we’ve been really concerned,” she said. “We’ve had real problems in terms of people breaking in. We’ve had to do all sorts of work. As soon as we make it safe somebody else finds a way in and then there’s something else we need to sort out. We decided the best thing to do is to permanently take out the things that are dangerous. Buildings are crumbling.”

Read more here.

Demolition work to begin next week at fire-hit Hastings Pier

The BBC is reporting that demolition work is to begin at Hastings Pier to make it safer after a fire destroyed the structure.

Hastings Borough Council said it was using emergency powers to remove debris because the pier’s owner, Ravenclaw Investments, had taken no action.

The authority said it was also having to employ a security company to stop people walking under the pier which closed to the public in 2006.

The fire on 5 October destroyed 95% of the upper part of the attraction.

Read more here.

Wyoming welcomes GM funding to demolish stamping plant that closed in 2009

The General Motors Corp. stamping plant in Wyoming has won $3.75 million from Old GM to clean up, tear down and get on with the site’s next life.

“We’re very excited it’s moving forward,” said Wyoming’s Deputy City Manager Barb VanDuren. “The longer a plant sits there, it just goes to more and more degradation. We’re ready to get this plant demolished, and ready to get something else built there.”

The cash won’t come directly to the city, though. For months, officials have been mulling ways to reuse the 75-year-old plant, once funds came through to help pay for it. Most feel it needs to be demolished, with a new industrial park to take its place.

Wyoming officials had worried the aging stamping plant would be mothballed by GM, and held in limbo indefinitely. Decisions on vacated GM plants also are swirling around 12 other Michigan cities. They share the state’s $158.7 million cut of the total U.S. fund, $773 million put up by Old GM as part of its bankruptcy settlement.

Read the full story here.

Work on Riverton Dam just days away.

Crews will begin the long-awaited process of demolishing the Riverton Dam on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River next week, town officials said.

Work will start Monday morning with a 10 a.m. presentation regarding efforts to demolish the dam at the clearing above the boat launch area, according to a news release issued by Steven M. Burke, the interim town manager and director of environmental services. The demolition will take about two weeks to finish.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Mayor Timothy W. Darr said. “It’s been a good, quick-moving project, and I’m glad it’s finally coming to fruition.”

The concrete dam was built by the town in 1906 in order to generate hydroelectric power. The facility produced power until it was decommissioned in 1930.

The town was recently awarded grant funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to demolish the dam in an effort to enhance fish passage along the Shenandoah River and increase recreational boating opportunities.

“Resident fish populations will benefit as well as American eel that spawn in the ocean and then must return to freshwater streams as juvenile to grow into adults,” Burke’s news release states.

Plans pertaining to the eventual demolition of the dam have long been in the works. However, the process was expedited in recent months by the Town Council after two drownings earlier this year elevated concerns about the safety of the dam. In April, Mark Grand, 51, of Linden, drowned following a kayaking accident. In June, 9-year old Ryan Warner, of Bunker Hill, W.Va., drowned after he apparently slipped on some rocks and was swept into a large hole on the north end of the dam. The Warren County Sheriff’s Office ruled the boy’s death accidental.

Read the full story here.

Parish Council gives go ahead for demolition in face of local protests.

A control tower at a disused airfield in Wiltshire is set to be demolished despite local protests. The building at Wroughton is unusual among World War II control towers because of its small size.

Wroughton Parish Council chairman Ann Richards said the council was “very sad” about the decision to demolish it.

The decision has been made by the Science Museum at Wroughton, which owns the land. It said other buildings were under review.

Campaigners fear other buildings on the airfield are under threat but have been reassured they will be consulted before any further decisions are made.

Read the full story here.

Demo Diva meets Superbowl Superstars

For far too long post -Katrina, the city of New Orleans lost its reputation as the party capital of the world; its name becoming synonymous with devastation, destruction and a forgotten community.

However, as the city rebuilds itself, two stories have emerged to bear testimony to the rebirth of the Big Easy. First came the New Orleans Saints historic and fairytale winning of the Superbowl; and then came Demo Diva Simone Bruni bursting onto the demolition scene like a pink-clad running back with the end zone in her sights.

So it’s fitting that these two stories of “Nawlins” second coming should themselves come together.

Our picture shows Simone (right) with New Orleans Saints’ wide receiver Reggie Bush and safety Darren Sharper.

Economic boom marred by increasing demolition officials’ abuse of power.

Abuse of power by housing and demolition officials has been on the increase this decade and is causing massive economic losses, an investigation has concluded in an official paper released to the Global Times Tuesday.

Official bribery took place in 28 of the city’s total 41 demolition cases this decade, and abuse of power – bullying – in five cases. Some 38 of the 41 cases involved corrupt housing or demolition officials, the prosecutors revealed. One third were cases of collective corruption, the biggest involving 16 officials.

By studying 10 years of cases, the Shijingshan district procuratorate team had identified 10 common issues, spokeswoman Wang Shuolei said.

The most publicized case involved Shichahai housing administration center director Zhang Jichun, sentenced to death on September 18 last year for receiving 7.3 million yuan in bribes and paying a 300,000 yuan ($45,116.18) bribe himself.

Zhang’s gambled 3 million yuan ($451,162) away in Macao, much of the cash coming from demolition compensation intended for residents, according to the Procuratorial Daily Tuesday.

Criminals could be found profiting at each and every stage of the demolition process: real estate developers, demolition companies and government departments including the sub-district administration committee and urban planning commission.

Read the full story here.

International Contractor of the Year films with legendary UK TV programme.

Presenter Helen Skelton, who attended an Asbestos Awareness Course and underwent a face fit test, donned her PPE following site inductions all round to get up close to Safedem’s ongoing works at Red Road in Glasgow on behalf of GHA (Glasgow Housing Association)

Blue Peter, which learned about Safedem’s very own safety campaign directed at children, are filming the entire demolition process of a tower block and the impact on the local community.

“We developed our SafeKIDS campaign to alert children living nearby that demolition sites can be dangerous,” explains Tracey Sinclair, head of Safedem’s community liaison team. “Over time we have extended the message to promote recycling, road safety and we have also become involved in various community projects.”

The film crew will re-visit the site at key stages through the project with a special report being aired post blowdown. The 30-storey steel frame structures are scheduled for demolition in 2011.