Portugal considers demolishing six-year old soccer stadiums to reduce maintenance costs.

In a timely reminder for the authorities in the midst of preparations for the London 2012 Olympic Games, Portuguese cities are under pressure to demolish stadiums built for the 2004 European soccer championships as the government prepares to rein in a widening deficit.

Portugal plans to announce a budget this week requiring extra cost-saving by towns, former economy minister Augusto Mateus said. The cities of Aveiro and Leiria want to cut monthly maintenance payments for public sports arenas of as much as 1.2 million euros ($1.7 million), officials said. Mateus, a former Socialist party minister, and Aveiro’s Social Democrat deputy Ulisses Pereira say they must consider demolition.

Portugal, which spent 600 million euros to build or fix several arenas, now finds them as much as three- quarters empty for league games. They are a symbol of wasteful spending, said Joao Cesar das Neves, an economics professor at Lisbon’s Catholic University.

Read the full story here.

Demolition works rupture pipe containing dye, turning snow pink.

Some snow in a Buffalo neighborhood turned a deep shade of pink after a cloud of powder was released during demolition of a business that used to make food coloring.

A demolition contractor said a pipe that contained about five pounds of residual red dye No. 40 ruptured at a building being torn down near the former Buffalo Color plant Thursday afternoon.

Read more here.

Mysterious photo has left us scratching our heads.

Is this some new-fangled demolition method? The aftermath of a missile attack? A city’s attempt at creating more open spaces? Or an ill-timed lit match on curry night?

You decide:

And the winner of this year’s “how to piss off property owners award” is…

Detroit has spent nearly $50 million since 2004 demolishing buildings owners have left to rot, but weak collection efforts have largely left taxpayers stuck with the bill, city officials acknowledge.

But Mayor Dave Bing says he’s about to get tough, promising to sue walkaway owners or sic collection agencies on them. After years of failing even to send bills for costs, the city soon plans to begin filing suits against the owners of the 40 most expensive demolitions of the past six years, mostly apartments or businesses, which run more than $25,000 apiece.

“Cost recovery on this stuff is very important,” says Karla Henderson, the city’s new director of Buildings and Safety Engineering, who wouldn’t identify which property owners the city will target. “The status quo of how we’ve been addressing this no longer works. We need to send a message it’s not OK anymore.”

Read the full story here.

Tired of traditional orange and yellow high visibility vests? Then dare to wear pink.

Those of you that have been reading Demolition News for long enough will know that, sartorially at least, we’re very much in touch with our feminine side. In the past year, we have sported a kilt, hats that have strayed to the Elton John side of flamboyant, and sported facial hair that would not have looked out of place in a Village People promo.

So we’re delighted to learn that those fine people at Active Workwear have now introduced yet another product line to test our ability to retain an air of dignified masculinity: the pink, high visibility vest.

Quite what those health and safety types will make of what looks like an escapee from a lesser known area of Liberace’s wardrobe, Lord alone knows. But we may order a few and offer them as competition prizes, just to see how butch (or otherwise) our estemmed readers really are.

Tentative date set for implosion of 34-storey Palm Beach property.

After numerous delays, West Palm Beach officials are preparing for a 14 February implosion of the hurricane-damaged tower at 1515 S. Flagler Drive. The structure, vacant for five years, is being demolished to make way a $150 million condo called The Modern.

While the date is tentative, Doug Wise, the city’s construction services director, said there’s consensus that the demolition should be ready by that time.

And there’s plenty of incentive: The developer, Trinity Development LLC, will be fined $1,000 per day by the city if the 1515 Tower isn’t down by the end of February.

Read more here.

TV cameras capture implosion of grain elevator in San Angelo, Texas.

25 metres of grain elevator disappeared in a boom and a cloud of dust in Eden, captured on television cameras for “The Imploders,” a new TV series for the TLC cable channel.

The implosion of the old grain elevator at the closed Concho Feed Mill on Thursday drew a crowd, including all 270 students and most of the 50 teachers and staff of the Eden Independent School District, who were bused across town for the 2 p.m. event.

Read more here or view the video below.

Federal stimulus funds to boost demolition initiative in Flint.

Flint in Michigan is expected to receive a massive boost in demolition and home rehabilitation funding today — about $25 million in federal stimulus funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

HUD said in a news release that Secretary Shaun Donovan will announce the awarding of $2 billion in stimulus funds nationwide in Detroit this afternoon. The awards include about $224 million for a consortium of 12 Michigan land banks, which applied as a group for the funding.

The Michigan State Housing Development Authority has been awarded about 80 percent of the funds it requested on behalf of the state land banks and cities, according to HUD. The Genesee County Land Bank’s share of that award will be about $25 million, according to former county treasurer and Land Bank chairman Daniel T. Kildee.

Read more here.

Three foundations may finance demolition of Indiana shopping mall.

Niles Township appears to be a community bent on destruction; in this case, the destruction of the former Eastgate Shopping Plaza.

NewsCenter 16 has learned that a trio of community foundations is poised to step forward and offer to pay for the destruction of the building so taxpayers won’t have to.

The latest estimate puts the potential price tag in the neighborhood of $150-thousand. “From what we have conveyed to them as far as what we can get, from demolition quotes, that they are willing to come forward and pay for the whole demolition part of it,” said Jim Kidwell, Niles Charter Township Supervisor.

Read more here.

EPA fines three companies over Rhode Island naval base asbestos mishandling.

Three companies that worked on a demolition project at the Newport Navy Base in Newport, R.I. will pay nearly $15,000 in fines for illegally handling and disposing of asbestos, the toxic building material linked to deadly mesothelioma cancer.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency charged the United States Naval Station – Newport, Goel Services, Inc., and A. A. Asbestos Abatement Co., Inc. of violating the Clean Air Act and the National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Asbestos in February 2009. Part of the demolition work involved removing, handling, and disposing of asbestos.

Read more here.