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.

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World famous aircraft plant looks set for demolition.

Boeing is set to demolish its historic Plant 2 facility near Boeing Field, famous for being so vital to the World War II manufacturing effort that to foil possible enemy bombing raids the roof was camouflaged with life-size fake trees, houses and streets.

Boeing spokesman Chris Villiers said a demolition schedule has not been finalised. But the company has told the Museum of Flight it must remove several old aircraft stored inside the plant within the next four months.

After demolition, Boeing plans to clean up the heavily polluted factory site, which backs onto the Duwamish Waterway.

Full story here.

Texas Stadium will fall on 11 April, according to reports.

After prolonged conjecture about the big-name sponsor behind its imminent implosion, Irving City officials have confirmed that the Texas Stadium implosion has been scheduled for 11 April.

The implosion date was announced at an Irving City Council work session Wednesday. It was the first time the council and the public got a glimpse of when – and how – the city plans to demolish the stadium with its famous hole in the roof.

Jim Redyke, president of Dykon Explosive Demolition Group, said crews have started cutting and digging holes for the thousands of pieces of dynamite that will be used in the implosion.

He said the building won’t fall all at once. Instead, Redyke said, the blasts will be timed to bring the stadium down in a sequence of collapsing pieces, which will take a minute to fall.

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No end in sight for demolition of so-called Tombstone at Ground Zero.

Nearly two months into the resumed demolition of the former Deutsche Bank tower near the World Trade Center, the agency responsible for taking down the building says it still cannot predict when the project will be done.

Crews resumed deconstruction of the former bank tower, critically damaged and rendered toxic in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, on Nov. 16. But so far, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has promised only that the building will finally be gone sometime this year.

“What we’ve been told [by general contractor Bovis Lend Lease] is that they’re confident that the building will come down in 2010,” LMDC spokesman Errol Cockfield told a Community Board 1 committee at its Jan. 11 meeting. “There are all kinds of variables, and we remind anyone who asks [for a date] about those unknowns.”

Since the deconstruction resumed in November, crews have demolished three of the remaining 26 floors.

“I think anyone who is familiar with this project will agree with me that safety has to be our number one priority,” Cockfield said, adding that between Nov. 16 and Jan. 11, work was stopped at least 14 times for weather-related reasons.

Legal troubles, fires and other accidents had already put the demolition of the once-40-story tower years behind schedule. A seven-alarm fire in 2007 killed two firefighters and brought deconstruction to a halt at the 26th story. The project is currently under a partial stop-work order from the city’s Department of Buildings because of a fuel spill on Jan. 4, and has been flagged nine times since the beginning of November for site safety issues. On Nov. 10, a worker dropped a wrench from the top of the building, striking another worker in the knee and sending him to the hospital. On Dec. 22, workers were cited for using blowtorches to steel columns too close to a fuel tank.

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Granite lands Greenville Bridge contract.

Granite Construction Incorporated announced yesterday that Granite Construction Company has been awarded a $22.4 million contract by the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) for the demolition of the U.S. 82 Greenville Bridge located approximately 100 miles northwest of Jackson, Mississippi.

However, an industry insider informs us the granite bid was not, in fact, the lowest. A low bid of $13.5 million from an unnamed contractor was kicked out on what was originally estimated to be a $30 million project.

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Original home of the company that brought the world Post-It Notes to tumble.

On 4 February, bids for a projected $4 million demolition of 12 campus buildings on the campus, which served as 3M’s headquarters between 1910 and 1962, will start being received. After that, the buildings, which are owned by the St. Paul Port Authority (SPPA), are to be torn down.

Louis Jambois, SPPA president, said the water tower will also come down after a two-year window for selling the old manufacturing and office buildings ends on Jan. 6, 2012.

“It’s not a functioning water tower anymore,” said Jambois. “And it would be a very expensive thing to keep” because of safety-related reasons.

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Not content with demolishing each other, professional wrestlers are branching out.

It’s only a few months since we reported on the on/off “relationship” between former professional wrestler Gristle McLargeHuge and US contractor Dykon and yet here we are again reporting on yet more grapplers diversifying into the demolition business.

The Extreme Makeover Home Edition demolition scheduled for 5:00pm has been delayed until 7:00pm.

Today we learned how the old Suggs family home in Horry County, South Carolina would be demolished as part of the popular Extreme Makeover Home Edition TV programme; and professional wrestlers, Big Show, the Bella Twins, and R-Truth, will be helping the designers tear the house down.

When EMHE built Renee Wilson’s home in Horry County in 2007, they used a giant golf club to smash the old house – a tribute to Myrtle Beach being known as the golf capitol of the world.

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Study finds pros and cons in debate over the demolition of vacant homes.

The Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne recently completed research studying the effects of the demolition of vacant residential buildings in Fort Wayne.

The study focused on the debate about which is better for the community, leaving a vacant house standing or demolishing it. Even though both sides of the argument have their supporters, the research found that not one is better for the community than the other.

“The fact that there is no overwhelming evidence that says demolition is good, demolition is bad is actually an important finding,” said Andy Downs, with the Mike Down Center for Indiana Politics at IPFW.

Read more here or view the video news report below.

Unnamed buyer could bring Continental Airlines building back from the brink.

Tampa International Airport officials have halted demolition plans for at least a week on the former Continental Airlines reservation center fter a Realtor with a local client expressed interest in leasing the building, possibly for $600,000 annually for 10 years.

Jones Lang LaSalle, which is representing an interested party from the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, toured the vacant building and is discussing a 10 to 15 year lease, airport director Louis Miller said Tuesday before a staff meeting.

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Environmentalists welcome decision to demolish Carmel dam.

Government officials and a Monterey water company have reached an agreement to tear down a dam on the Carmel River that environmental groups say blocks the passage of endangered steelhead trout.

Under the deal reached Monday, California American Water, which owns the San Clemente Dam, will contribute $50 million toward its demolition.

Federal and state agencies will work to secure the project’s remaining $34 million cost.

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