Increase in demolition of unused UK office and factory buildings could be seen next year.

Increases of up to 20 per cent in business rates are being forecast, as hard-pressed local authorities seek to make up shortfalls in funding from central government.

This could push demolition rates sharply upwards, and also see the trend spread to central London, which has hitherto escaped the worst effects of the trend. Demolition of redundant buildings has left ugly eyesores in the middle of many British cities.

The Government abolished empty rates relief in April 2008, which meant that full rates have since been charged on empty commercial buildings. Business rates continue to be payable by landlords on all empty offices, even if letting proves difficult.

Read more here.

While online publications seek to charge for content, Demolition News will remain free.

Under normal circumstances, we prefer not to be self-referencing and self-promoting; we’d rather let our words, photos, video and audio content speak for itself. However, thanks to dinosaurs like Rupert Murdoch and more of his kind, there are moves afoot that will require readers of online publications to part with cold, hard cash to access information that, to date, has been available free-of-charge.

It is a model that both Construction News and Building magazine in the UK are now pursuing; and it won’t end there.

They would have you believe that this charge will be applied to help pay for the hardworking journalists that produce their content. But don’t be fooled.

A huge amount of the content of trade magazines (and, for that matter, newspapers) comes as a direct result of them having received a press release from some third-party. It might be news of a contract award; a contract completion; the appointment of a new director; or the acquisition of a new item of equipment. But regardless of the subject-matter, the fact is this – It did not require a highly-paid journalist to spend countless hours conducting highly technical and prolonged investigations. In fact, in many instances, it required just two minutes of a sub-editor’s time turning someone’s contributed press release into what today passes as industry journalism.

No. What you are paying for is the downturn in on and offline advertising caused by the current global recession; you are paying for the multi-layered management and over-staffing that is typical among traditional paper-based (dead tree) publishing houses; and you are paying for a flawed and outmoded publishing method applied to a modern world that will not wait for and will not pay for information.

Without tooting our own horn, Demolition News produces more than 10 times the level of content of ANY paper-based demolition publication. Our website is updated daily, carries more news, and is not afraid to speak its mind, even if that means causing offense or controversy. And with the exception of our regular guest blogs, every single word you read here is written by just one person from the comfort of his own front room.

Now compare that to a trade magazine that publishes, say, once every two months, runs largely contributed material, and dare not speak out of turn for fear of upsetting a potential advertiser. Typically, such a publication would employ an editor, a reporter, an advertising manager and (perhaps) an advertising salesperson, all overseen by a publisher and, usually, a director of some kind. The magazine would be produced in a plush, air-conditioned office by a team of five or six people, each driving company cars and each with an expensive expense account.

And it’s you, dear reader, that is (or soon will be) paying for all that.

But not at Demolition News. For while we would like to be able to travel the world and swan about overseas demolition sites at someone else’s expense, it is our belief that you – the reader – want up-to-the-minute news, as it happens; you want comment and opinion on the issues impacting upon your business; and you want it free-of-charge.

So we are making a commitment to you, our readers. The content of Demolition News is currently free and that’s the way it’s going to stay.

If you’d like to finance the high-living, company-car-driving, champagne-quaffing, air-conditioned-office lifestyle of traditional publishing houses, you go right ahead; there are plenty of publishers out there that will gladly take your money from you.

But if you want fast, meaningful, FREE and (we hope) well-written journalism and comment, stick around.

Demolition company fined just $4,200 for death of worker.

The US Occupational Safety & Health Administration has cited Eastco Enterprises in York $4,200 for an industrial accident that led to the death of a worker.

In August, 42-year-old Curtis Fink of York County died as a result of multiple blunt-force trauma while working for Eastco Enterprises in Lebanon County.

OSHA issued Eastco two violations for its worker not wearing fall protection equipment and for not having a written demolition plan, said Bryan Seal, area director of OSHA in Harrisburg.

Read more here.

Ageing stern-wheeler has a date with demolition after failed restoration.

The owner of the Becky Thatcher, which is sinking in the Ohio River off Neville Island, has contracted with a company to demolish and remove the historic steamboat.

Owner Jeffrey Levin moved the 84-year-old stern-wheeler from Marietta, Ohio, to Pittsburgh in October in hopes of restoring it as a floating restaurant and bar. Last week, however, the top two decks collapsed into the bottom deck and the boat began taking on water. Mr. Levin said the boat, which was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, was “a total loss” and could not be repaired.

Employees of Delta Demolition Group, of Newton Falls, Ohio, have been visiting the boat and expect to begin the removal next week, said Lee Chaklos, company operations manager.

Read the full story here.

Wrecking crews scheduled to pull down Hollywood home of 9/11 terrorists later today.

A Hollywood apartment building that gained notoriety as the brief home of two Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists has an appointment with a demolition crew Friday morning.

The two-storey brick structure at 1818 Jackson St., is scheduled to be destroyed by heavy equipment at 9 am local time. The building’s new owner, Bryan Grosman, plans to put in a pool and parking lot for a new, more modern complex he owns next door.

Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi shared lodgings in the second-floor apartment 3A from May through June 2001. Atta and al-Shehhi were the pilots respectively of the first and second planes that crashed into the Twin Towers in the worst terrorist attack on US soil.

Read more here.

Excavator simulator launched for iPhone; available now through iTunes.

You know how it is. You’ve spent the day working your way through a mountain of paperwork, visited half a dozen sites, dealt with issues and complaints from all and sundry, and you’re finally sat down with nothing but a strong drink and your iPhone to keep you company – What better time to do a bit of armchair excavating?

We have reported previously on the Demolition City iPhone app that allowed those of an explosive persuasion to practice what they do best on their iPhone. Well now it’s the turn of the excavator operator/big boy’s toy enthusiasts amongst us to get an app that allows them to keep their hand in without leaving their armchair.

The new app is priced at $3.99, not cheap by comparison to many of the free games out there. But if you do feel like doing a spot of excavating without the need for personal protective equipment and muddy sites, it might just be the solution you’re looking for.

Click here for further details.

Leading equipment manufacturers gather to compile new high reach guidance.

Representatives of all the world’s foremost manufacturers and converters of high reach demolition excavators gathered at the National Federation of Demolition Contractors’ Resurgam House head office yesterday to start work on the revision of the Federation’s high reach guidance notes.

Hosted by NFDC chief executive Howard Button and industry veteran Paul Brown, co-author of the original guidance published some five years ago, the meeting was attended by representatives of Caterpillar, Hitachi, JCB, Komatsu, Liebherr and Volvo together with attachments specialist Sandvik and Europe’s foremost high reach converters, Kocurek and Rusch.

Demolition News was in attendance (and will be part of the editorial team tasked with producing the new guidance) and broadcast parts of the meeting live via Ustream. A brief part of that video featuring Paul Brown (pink short) Howard Button (centre) Caterpillar’s Alain Meyer (right) and JCB’s James Richardson (blue shirt) can be viewed below while the rest of the footage can be found by clicking here.

Four lowest bidders on water plant demolition not licensed.

Over the past year, we have taken considerable enjoyment from the US demolition industry’s bidding system and its “race to the bottom” policy of undercutting. But even by recent standards, this story from Indiana beggars belief.

The low bidder awarded a contract on Wednesday to demolish Crown Point’s old water plant – a key component in the development of the Bo Jackson’s Legacy Athletic Center – is not licensed in Lake County. Nor is the second lowest bidder. Nor the third or the fourth.

The city’s Board of Works on Wednesday morning awarded the demolition contract to Omega Demolition Corp. of Elgin, Ill., contingent upon the company meeting all city requirements. The board stipulated that should it not meet those requirements, the second lowest bidder would be awarded the contract. City Attorney David Nicholls recommended a third be named, in case the first two did not meet qualifications.

Omega submitted a low bid of $97,400 among the 12 bidders. The second lowest was American Demolition Corp., also of Elgin, with a bid of $98,400.

The third lowest bid, from Brandenburg Industrial Service Co. of Chicago was $99,740. The fourth lowest, from Dore & Associates Contracting of Bay City, Mich., was $124,600. None of those bidders is licensed in Lake County, the Post-Tribune learned from the Lake County Plan Commission office, which issues the licenses.

The fifth lowest bidder, Austgen Equipment Inc. of Griffith, is a licensed general contractor in Lake County. Austgen bid $132,350.

Read the full story here.

Today’s meeting of high reach excavator manufacturers to be broadcast live.

Following a successful trial at the National Demolition Training Group AGM earlier this month and a brief test run at yesterday’s NFDC High Reach Working Wednesday, we are planning to broadcast live from the meeting of high reach excavator manufacturers and modifiers that is taking place at the NFDC’s headquarters later this morning.

These things can be rather temperamental but, technology allowing, you will be able to view the discussions by clicking here from 10.00 am (UK time) onwards.

EDA to hold meeting in Stockholm to coincide with DEMCON show

Just 24 hours after we reported on the growing take up of exhibition space at DEMCON 2010 comes news that will gladden the heart of the organisers.

The European Demolition Association, meeting in the UK earlier today, has agreed that it has agreed to host it’s Autumn meeting in Stockholm the day before DEMCON, allowing senior EDA officers to visit the new show, it is also thought that the EDA will also be invited as VIP guests at the exhibition’s gala dinner.

More news as we receive it.