Demolition set to commence at Baltimore’s former retail district.

The Baltimore Development Corp. will celebrate the demolition of several buildings in the so-called superblock Thursday to make way for a planned redevelopment bringing new retail, office and residential space to the area.

The soon-to-be-razed properties on Baltimore’s west side will be sold to a partnership between the Cordish Co. and Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation as part of a deal struck between them and the Baltimore Development Corp. in August 2007.

The properties, in the 200 block of Lexington Street, are just part of the city’s larger ambitions for the superblock, once a thriving retail district that has fallen into disrepair. The area is considered a key link between the city’s west side and central business district.

Read more here.

The Imploders’ TV cameras are trained on a Texas feed mill this week.

Eden’s defunct Concho Feed Mill will star in an upcoming episode of “The Imploders,” a new reality show from the TLC cable channel that follows the Idaho-based Kelly family, operators of Advanced Explosives Demolition.

Kathy Keane, Eden’s economic development coordinator, said she has been working on the project since about 17 December. “It came as a tip from the Texas Department of Agriculture that ‘The Imploders’ were looking for demolition projects,” she said. “I told them we had some structures here that might work. Now just weeks later, we’re in the middle of filming.”

The Colorado-based owner of the mill, Wes E. Klett of Anipro/Xtraformance Feeds, who already had begun arrangements to demolish the nearly 58-year-old structure, agreed to let the TV team take over, Keane said.

Read more here.

New Lawson Demolition photos highlight UK’s ongoing weather problems.

About a week ago, we asked readers to send in their snowy photos to mark one of those rare occasions when the UK (together with large parts of the US and Europe) was covered in a blanket of snow. This was intended to be a brief and light-hearted way to ease readers back to work after the festive period.

However, seven days later and the snow’s still there (in fact, we had another flurry here earlier this morning) and still the photos come in.

This latest batch from Lawson Demolition clearly illustrate just how cold the UK climate is at present; and just how difficult work conditions have become.

City officials climb behind the levers to kickstart Lorain city redevelopment.

With backhoes and hard hats, Lorain city officials tore down the first abandoned home targeted by the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

Lorain Mayor Tony Krasienko said yesterday’s demolition officially kicked off the start of the program, which is funded by a $3.03 million federal grant. Nearly 45 homes in the city will be demolished and another 20 to 30 will be revitalized, he said.

“There’s no doubt that we have a need for it,” Krasienko said. “We’re going to see this area improve just by removal of this nuisance.”

Read more here or view the video below.

New video tour of Port of Long Beach highlights importance of C&D waste recycling.

We have, in the past, been vocal in our criticism of some US contractors’ somewhat ardy approach to the subject of construction and demolition waste recycling.

So it’s pleasing to see this new video on the demolition and construction works taking place at the Port of Long Beach in which the main contractor is achieving European-standard 95% recycling levels.

Police renew appeal to prevent vandals becoming exposed to asbestos.

Vandals are exposing themselves to asbestos by ignoring police warnings not to enter the sites of derelict buildings being knocked down in Hull.

Humberside Police have renewed appeals to people to stay away from the old Heron Frozen Foods site on Walcott Street in Hull which is being demolished.

Officers are concerned that vandals are persistently ignoring signs to keep out and exposing themselves to potential hazards to carry out attacks.

They have also asked people to keep their eyes open and report anyone they see sneaking into any building site, because the same dangers exist in other areas of half-demolished structures.

Read more here.

TV bosses have confirmed that home of TV’s longest-running soap opera is to be demolished.

It has been the scene of murders and rapes, assaults and catfights, marriages and divorces, unexpected arrivals and dramatic departures. But the street in which TV’s longest-running soap opera – Coronation Street- is facing the wrecking ball as the set is moved from Quay Street in Manchester city centre to a site near Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium after ITV resumed talks to relocate its offices.

Following the appointment of new ITV chairman Archie Norman, negotiations have begun again to relocate the soap’s famous pub and cobbled streets to the £600m Media City UK in Salford Quays.

Read the full story here.

Last-minute entry steals the plaudits in our snowman competition.

As regular readers will be aware, we attempted last week to make the best of the terrible weather that had brought work to a standstill across the UK, Europe and on into many parts of the US by challenging demolition workers to create a snowman.

Well, thanks to generous offers from two readers, we were inundated with entries for what (ironically) turned out to be a hotly contested affair. As arbiters of all things snowy, we were looking for a mix of style and substance, size and stature and, ideally, something of a demolition theme.

So we’re delighted to announce that our winning snowman, which was in fact that last entry received before the contest closed on Friday night, was from Barry Morgan in Faversham, Kent. As you can see below, not only does Barry’s entry display some superb snow sculpting facial features, it is the only entry we received which would get past an HSE workwear inspection.

Our congratulations go to Barry while £100 (donated by Button-Linguard’s Roy Gibbons and a mysterious benefactor known only as GoldenGirl) is heading for the Cancer Research charity.

A Brazilian demolition contractor uses simulation software to predict implosion.

Applied Science International has helped complete the successful implosion of two buildings in the Rio di Janeiro, Brazil just miles from the Deodoro Military Club, one of the four central venues hosting the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

The buildings which had become known by many locals as the Skeleton Man are two of many structures that will be demolished paving the way for construction projects in preparation for both the 2016 Summer Olympics and the World Cup in which it will host in 2014.

The buildings which had been deemed unsafe by local government officials were imploded by Fabio Bruno Construcoes, a seasoned demolition contractor and one of ASI’s Exclusive Demolition Analysis Partner in Brazil. ASI performed pre-demolition analysis of the structural demolition plan using its Extreme Loading Technology which can quickly and accurately simulate and predict the performance of structures under extreme loads. ASI simulated several demolition scenarios for Fabio Bruno Construcoes providing recommendations and modifications to the demolition scenario, increasing both the effectiveness and safety of the demolition.

Extreme Loading Technology (ELT) is based on the Applied Element Method (AEM) of analysis, the only method of analysis capable of automatically calculating the initiation and propagation of cracks, the separation of elements, and impending collisions. Edward di Girolamo, ASI’s CEO stated, “Fabio Bruno Construcoes is one of the first demolition contractors to take advantage of ELT through our Exclusive Demolition Analysis Partnership. The Brazilian demolition is one of many demolitions planned and carried out around the world on which the technology will be used to improve safety and avoid costly mishaps which happen all too often.”

Read more here, or watch the video below.

15 minutes to evacuate before collapse drops debris on neighbouring houses.

A Southeast Washington neighbourhood was jolted Thursday when a building collapsed and it was all caught on tape.

As the demolition crew worked on what was left of the SE high rise, evacuated residents like Pete Lyes and Renee Carter, who share a place at Southern Homes and Gardens apartment complex, stood in a parking lot and fumed.

“They just woke us up and said, ‘Evacuate!'” said resident Rene Carter. “My father is 80 years old and they gave us 15 minutes to evacuate…if it had been in Georgetown, they would have put me up in a hotel or somewhere else,” Carter said.

Efforts to bring down the city-owned building had been going on for a week, a process accompanied by a lot of dust and debris.

Further details can be found here or, alternatively, you can watch the (slow loading) video below.