DemolitionNews unveils online daily newspaper featuring industry’s most influential people.

Imagine trying to create a newspaper featuring regular insights from the chief executive of the National Federation of Demolition Contractors, the vice-president of the Institute of Demolition Engineers, and the former president of the European Demolition Association.

Now imagine if that newspaper also featured input from the likes of the Environment Agency and the Health and Safety Executive, together with some of the key individuals and companies from the demolition world.

Now imagine if that newspaper was available online each day, seven days a week.

Well, we DID imagine just such a publication and, thanks to a very clever online tool called paper.li, that is exactly what we have compiled.

Each day, paper.li will pull together the Twitter posts from each of the individuals above and more than 30 of the industry’s key online movers and shakers, and present it to you in an easy-to-read, newspaper-style format. And you don’t have to be a Twitter user to read the newspaper.

In fact, all you need to do is visit The Demolition Daily each day (or add it as a favourite) and let us bring you the thoughts and views of some of the industry’s most influential individuals.

Insolvency Service prosecutes company director for breaching insolvency laws

A director of a demolition company has been jailed for 16 months following an investigation by the Insolvency Service, Building Magazine reports.

George Charles Taylor was a director of Amalgamated Demolition Services Ltd which was wound up by the Brighton County Court on 24 April 2006.

A bankruptcy order was made against Taylor on 16 January 2007. He acted as a director of Amalgamated Demolition and Asbestos Services Ltd despite being barred from doing so due to being an undischarged bankrupt.

Taylor informed Amalgamated Demolition Services Ltd’s major customer that the company had a new bank account and asked that payment of over £22,000 for work done by Amalgamated Demolition Services Ltd be paid to the new account.

Read more here.

Website offers the fastest way to find work and workers in the UK demolition sector.

As you will probably recall, demolition-jobs.co.uk was founded (as a joint venture between demolitionnews.com and the National Federation of Demolition Contractors) in the midst of the recession with one simple principle – To allow demolition professionals to advertise their availability to work. Free to advertise for employees and free to browse for employers, the site has proved a resounding success, allowing numerous unemployed demolition workers to get back to what they do best.

But time has moved on and, while the recession is far from over, the needs of the industry have changed. So, while the site will continue to allow demolition workers to advertise their availability to work for free, the site has been upgraded.

With the help and support of recruitment specialist HumRes, the site now allows UK demolition contractors to advertise positions vacant to an established database of several thousand demolition professionals via both demolition-jobs.co.uk and via its sister site, demolitionnews.com.

Advertising vacant positions really couldn’t be easier. All we need is:

• Role/Job Title
• NFDC Region (if applicable)
• Location (by county)
• Salary

And we will do the rest. The vacancy will appear in minutes on both demolition-jobs.co.uk and
demolitionnews.com as well as on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and a multitude of other online platforms, ensuring that it is seen by thousands of demolition professionals almost immediately. And although your company’s details will not be visible on the site, prospective employees are then free to make direct contact with you, eliminating the costly recruitment middle-man.

Furthermore, advertising vacant positions on demolition-jobs.co.uk has been designed to be as cost-effective as possible. Jobs ads can be posted for £50 per week or £150 per month, payable via traditional invoice or PayPal online payment to suit you.

So if your company has a vacancy that needs filling quickly, please take a look at www.demolition-jobs.co.uk; the fastest way to find work and workers in the UK demolition industry.

Temporary victory for protesters as work stops on Stuttgart railway project.

The government of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg says it is prepared to negotiate over a controversial railway project in Stuttgart. Tens of thousands have taken to the streets of the city in opposition in recent weeks.

The government of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg has signaled it may be prepared to come to the negotiating table over the controversial redevelopment of the main railway station in the city of Stuttgart.

“Work on the south wing (of the station) will stop for the time being, as it is not important for progress of the construction work,” Baden-Wuerttemberg’s transport minister, Tanja Goenner, told public broadcaster ZDF.

According to the German press agency, DPA, Baden-Wuerttemberg Premier Stefan Mappus has signaled that no further demolition work would occur until the next election in the state, scheduled for March, 2011.

Read more here.

Exclusive audio interview with Ryan Briggs, founder of The Construction Network.

It is probably clear to most DemolitionNews readers that we are firm believers in the power of social media and social networking. In addition to this blog, DemolitionNews has a presence on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and a multitude of other sites through which we gather and share information.

Our fascination with social media initially grew out of necessity. As journalists, we had grown tired of receiving out-of-date news that had been filtered by an editor with little or no feel for or commitment to the business they’re paid to serve. However, as time has moved on, our fascination with social media has turned into an addictive love affair. Instead of our news being filtered by a no-name editor whose vision may be clouded by the lure of advertising money, our news is gathered and shared by demolition professionals the world over; citizen journalists, if you will.

In years gone by, it would have taken a major international publishing company with a huge team of reporters and a bottomless expense account to bring you the daily (and even hourly) news updates that we’re able to provide thanks to our friends and contacts on Facebook and Twitter (among others).

Now there will be some among you that dismiss social networks as new-fangled, a passing fad. But think about it for a moment. Many of our readers belong to trade associations, federations and institutes. Why? For most, it is the only place that they can share their hopes and fears and information and experiences with like-minded individuals. And that is why the various meetings, conferences and conventions run by these trade associations continue to be so popular.

Now imagine having that ability to share at your finger tips 24/7; and imagine if it were not confined just to your country of origin but which also extended overseas. You now have an idea of why we support as many social networks as we do.

Of course, these networks are not without their challenges. And Facebook, which now has over half a billion members, is a case in point. For every useful news resource contained on Facebook, there is another 30 that merely add to the daily information deluge that constantly threatens to drown us all.

So imagine a social network that was created purely for those with an active interest in the “built environment”; construction and demolition companies and workers, to be precise.

Well, that’s exactly what The Construction Network (tCn) brings to the table. Founder Ryan Briggs has developed an online platform that, like Facebook, allows members to share information and make friends and contacts. But, unlike Facebook, tCn members are vetted to ensure that they are active within the construction or demolition industry and are not there merely to leech off that sector.

Here at DemolitionNews, we were among the early adopters of the tCn model and have watched it develop over the past year or so. But as the online platform is upgraded with a number of new features, we caught up with founder Ryan Briggs to find out more about this “Facebook for the built environment”:

And when you have finished listening to the audio (hit play, below), please use the code p6fc4b to get your exclusive FREE membership of The Construction Network, and be sure to check out the demolition community at the same time.

Report highlights potential boom in oil rig dismantling and decommissioning.

The cost of dismantling North Sea oil and gas platforms is forecast to reach £19bn over the next 30 years.

A new report by industry specialists said there were about 260 platforms to be decommissioned. Consultants Deloittes and Douglas-Westwood said the work presented “big opportunities” for those in the industry. They estimate the value of contracts to process the aged structures could be worth $1bn (£630m) a year.

The projected workload is expected to exceed the capacities of the existing heavy lift vessel fleet and onshore deconstruction facilities. That could present opportunities for future recycling yards and oil well service companies.

The report also highlighted that the majority of decommissioning activity and related spend would occur between 2017 and 2027.

Read more here.

Structure that blocked path of cruise liner to be dismantled.

A pier-side “sculpture” at the port of San Juan, Puerto Rico that blocked a Carnival cruise ship from visiting in December is being dismantled.

The Associated Press today reports demolition of the giant steel structure began over the weekend with explosives placed at its corners. In upcoming days, a demolition crew will pull apart steel rods holding the structure together and cut it into pieces to remove it,

Back in December, the structure made it impossible for the 130,000-ton Carnival Dream to dock at the berth to which it had been assigned. Another dock that could have accommodated the Dream already was occupied by another vessel.

The structure, which looks like a giant paper airplane propped up by gray legs and runs nearly the full length of the pier, was installed in 2006 as part of a $30 million project to improve the island’s port facilities. In what many observers will no doubt view as an ironic twist, it was designed and paid for in part by Carnival’s biggest rival, Royal Caribbean.

Read more here.

Workers uncover unforeseen asbestos at convention centre site in Utah.

Asbestos removal crews were called into action recently after the fibers were found unexpectedly near a demolition site in Provo, Utah, the Daily Heralds reported.

Workers found an asbestos-contaminated pipe beneath the concrete but the county’s assistant public works director Don Nay said there was nothing to worry about. No one was at risk because the minerals hadn’t escaped into the air.

The find was a surprise, but Nay explained this was the reason for keeping an abatement crew at the demolition site. He says all of the buildings being demolished at the convention center had some asbestos in them but none of it had been released into the air.

Read more here.

The latest edition of the NFDC’s flagship magazine is available to read online now.

The Autumn 2010 edition of the National Federation of Demolition Contractors’ Demolition & Dismantling magazine is out now, and contains a full report on the Federation’s recent 2010 Annual Convention that took place in Sardinia.

Slow-motion video captures final seconds of latest Glasgow tower to fall.

We’re currently awaiting the official news release on what looks to have been a textbook blast at Norfolk Court in a rain-drenched Glasgow yesterday. But while we’re waiting, here’s an amateur video of the tower’s final seconds, captured in slow-motion:

UPDATE: Our friends C&D Consultancy, who were involved in this project, have a number of additional videos of this contract which you can see here.