Six companies contend for contract to turn auto assembly plant into research facility.

Six firms have been selected as finalists to take on the monumental task of transforming Newark’s former auto assembly plant into a research and technology facility at the University of Delaware.

1743 Holdings, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of UD, chose the six general contractors from a list of 70 for consideration to oversee the work that will eventually lead to demolishing the numerous buildings at the site to make use of the 3.4 million square feet of business space. The work also includes abatement of materials containing asbestos, and recycling and disposal of all building materials.

The six firms selected to participate in the Request for Proposal phase are: Brandenburg Industrial Service Company; CST Environmental, LP; Envirocon, Inc.; North American Dismantling Corp.; URS Corporation and WRSCompass.

“Through an extensive process we narrowed the field down to those firms that are most qualified to undertake the proposed work,” Vic Costa, 1743 Holdings, LLC Executive Director, said.

All six general contractors selected to participate in the RFP process will be participating in the Delaware Opportunity Expo which will give local contractors, consultants and vendors an opportunity to meet with each of then,” Jennifer (J.J.) Davis, UD Vice President for Administration, said.

Read more here.

Your last chance to read Construction Equipment’s Demolition Digest.

On 30 April, after 60 illustrious years, the US magazine Construction Equipment will officially close its doors and with it the Construction Equipment website.

We have expressed our sadness and disappointment at this ludicrous turn of events previously, so we do not intend to go over old ground. Instead, we’d just like to wave the magazine and the website a very fond farewell and to encourage our readers to catch the Demolition Digest section – with which we have been associated for the past year – just one last time.

We wish all the editors, reporters, sales team and backroom staff every success in finding new employment, and hope they’ll be back in the industry they made their own very soon.

New York demolition and asbestos abatement sectors “have a rich history of corruption”.

A safety inspector licensed to make critical assessments of asbestos and lead risks in buildings and at construction sites across New York city made a stunning admission in federal court: Despite filing hundreds of reports saying his tests had found no danger, Saverio F. Todaro, 68, had not performed a single one of the tests.

His admissions late last month have raised troubling questions about whether such conduct might be more widespread, and it has led to an expanding inquiry focused on some aspects of the work of asbestos and lead inspectors in the city. “Todaro’s guilty plea is not the end of the story,” said the Manhattan United States attorney, Preet Bharara. “This investigation is very much ongoing.”

The investigation, in part, seeks to determine whether he conspired with others — taking bribes to fashion crude forgeries and mask his failure to conduct any tests — or whether he acted alone for other reasons, officials said.

The breadth of his crimes, the simplicity of the schemes and the apparent ease with which he got away with them over the years also suggest that the city’s oversight is strained, at best.

“It’s the tip of the iceberg,” said one official briefed on the matter and on the issues facing city and federal regulators, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry is continuing. “We just don’t know how big the iceberg is.”

Because Mr. Todaro never did the tests in question, and because in more than a dozen instances the buildings involved have been torn down and replaced with new ones, or gutted and renovated, it is impossible in some cases to determine if proper tests would have revealed potentially dangerous levels of lead or asbestos.

In addition to the continuing investigation that grew out of the charges against Mr. Todaro, there are now six other unrelated federal cases under way exploring allegations of similar practices in the New York City area. Some 1,500 people hold city or federal certifications to test for lead or asbestos in the area.

One line of inquiry for investigators in the case involving Mr. Todaro is whether any building owners, management firms or contractors for whom he or other inspectors worked paid bribes for the bogus inspection reports. Officials say substantial sums of money could have been saved by allowing the demolition of buildings without performing expensive asbestos abatement.

Indeed, several current and former law enforcement officials and industry experts underscored that the city’s construction industry, and in particular the demolition and asbestos abatement sectors, have a rich history of corruption.

Read the full story here.

Michigan Department of Transportation releases time-lapse video of bridge demolition.

The Michigan Department of Transportation has released a new video that shifts bridge demolition on I-94 into hyper-speed.

The following video comprises more than 400 still photos collated to show time-lapsed video of its work.

Having canceled this year’s exhibition, can SED ever come back?

From an exhibitor’s point of view, SED was the perfect construction equipment exhibition. It was supported by a pair of popular and widely-read trade magazines (Contract Journal and PMJ), was extensively (and expensively) promoted on and offline, and provided a unique opportunity to show machines doing what they do best – move dirt.

But all of that is in the past. Neither of those magazines exist any longer, so the usual previews to attract and the reviews to remind visitors what’s on display have gone the way of the Dodo. Without an offline magazine presence, there can be little question that the promotion will have been impacted. And let’s face it, how many of the machine operators and fleet owners that made up the lion’s share of the exhibition’s attendees are spending their every waking hour on the Internet?

And what of the exhibitors? In years gone by, the exhibition largely sold itself – Names like Caterpillar, Komatsu, JCB, Volvo and Case clamored to be part of what was billed as the “biggest show in Earth”. And the attraction of these industry-leading names allowed smaller, less well-known manufacturers and dealers to benefit from the crumbs that fell from the table of the majors.

Not surprisingly (and somewhat belatedly), the organisers of SED followed of the previously postponed Hillhead quarry exhibition put this year’s show on ice. But can it really bounce back?

Admittedly, the next show is still a year off but a browse through the exhibitors signed up shows a dearth of big names. Indeed, the only company on the list that would be considered a premier league OEM is Hyundai, and even they are more Bolton Wanderers than Manchester United. The rest of the list currently comprises a variety of lesser suppliers and manufacturers of clothing, cab seating and security equipment; all fine in their place but hardly the backbone of a construction equipment show or a reason to trek halfway across the country.

I come not to bury SED but to praise it. I am a career-long fan of the show. I haven’t missed a single SED in the past 25 years. In fact, much to my wife’s annoyance (then and now), I left her with newborn twins and 10 newborn Boxer puppies to attend SED ’93, such was the draw of the show.

But I am not alone in fearing that the demise of Contract Journal and Plant Managers Journal, the downturn in the UK construction industry, and an enforced 12-month hiatus might prove to be the perfect storm that washes the once great SED away for good.

Donation from Playboy boss rescues iconic Hollywood sign from demolition.

His magazines, movies and TV shows have been providing a public service for hairy-palmed teenage boys the world over for more than 40 years. But Playboy boss Hugh Hefner has now made an even bigger community-minded statement by helping save the iconic Hollywood sign from demolition.

The soft-porn magnate gave $900,000 (£580,000) to the fund which was set up to stop the site being developed. The sign is owned by the city, but the property around it belongs to a group of Chicago-based investors.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger described the news as “the Hollywood ending we hoped for”.
Schwarzenegger said Hefner’s donation and a $500,000 matching grant brought to an end a $12.5m fundraising campaign. It means 138 acres around the hillside sign will be protected from developers, who wanted to turn the land into high-price housing estates.

Hefner, who calls the sign “Hollywood’s Eiffel Tower”, said: “My childhood dreams and fantasies came from the movies, and the images created in Hollywood had a major influence on my life and Playboy.”

Read more here.

Work underway on demolition of Wolverhampton bus station, stage 1 of redevelopment.

Workers from local demolition company Armac have moved in to demolish Wolverhampton’s bus station ready for a £22.5 million transformation as the work kicked off a day ahead of schedule. The facility in Pipers Row has been closed since April ready for the re-build, which is part of a wider £176m interchange project to link the bus and train stations.

Wolverhampton City Councillor Paddy Bradley, cabinet member for regeneration and enterprise, said today: “This is the start of the regeneration of our city as we know it. This will bring jobs, better transport links and money to Wolverhampton. It’s importance cannot be understated and to now actually be able to see the development finally starting is a real confidence boost for the city and for the people of Wolverhampton. And this is just the start. Stage two which will link the interchange to the train station is still very much something we are working to make happen. It’s an exciting time.”

Work had been due to start at the bus station in November last year, but there were legal delays over the transfer of property from transport authority Centro to Wolverhampton City Council.

Read more here.

Negotiations progressing over future of Scottish Highlands oil yard.

Hopes of a breakthrough in the long-standing deadlock over the future of the mothballed Nigg yard were given a boost this week when it was revealed that top-level talks between interested parties are progressing, and that a planning application could soon be lodged.

But a spokesman for one of the principal parties, the giant DSM Group, was playing his cards close to his chest and would not reveal exactly what their plans were. DSM’s Edinburgh-based representative Bryce Stewart told the Journal, “It has taken a lot longer than we would have hoped for. We have spent a lot of time with Highland Council, so we are well positioned. We are getting all our ducks in a row and we would hope to make a planning application quite soon. We have got a lot of people piling up behind us, and that’s all we can say at the moment. We will just have to see how things work out.”

It has previously been suggested that DSM would take on the role of landlord at Nigg.

Read more here.

Indian tower block faces third demolition after twice sprouting new floors.

Most demolition professionals will sooner or later come up against a structure that proves difficult to demolish. But very few have come up against a building that respawns each time it’s demolished.

And yet that is precisely what has happened to the upper two floors of a residential building in India that have sprung back to stand tall in defiance after being demolished twice in three years.

The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) had first demolished the top two floors of 5F Palm Avenue in April 2007 after a campaign against illegal constructions. The building was, however, back to its original height within a few months of the demolition.

A second demolition drive was carried out in November 2008 after the illegal reconstruction came to light. But once again, the two floors were rebuilt in quick time.

“The promoter bribed officials of the civic body as well as the local police station to reconstruct the demolished portions. This illegal building is living proof of the promoter-CMC-police nexus,” said a resident who met mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya following the Stephen Court tragedy to lodge a complaint.

“If there is a fire, there is no way the residents can get out of here unscathed. Even fire tenders cannot enter the lane because of the narrow approach to the building,” he added.

Mayor Bhattacharyya, who had promised to increase surveillance and initiate action against promoters, landlords and civic officials involved in illegal constructions, expressed surprise at the “rebirth” of the two illegal floors.

“It is strange that these two illegal floors came up again. We will demolish the illegal portion of the building again,” Bhattacharyya said on Sunday.

Read more here.

Dream come true as UK demolition contractor allows girl to demolish school.

Way back in July 2009, we brought you the audio recording of an Irish schoolgirl calling a local demolition company in the hope that they would demolish her school and her teachers long with it. This turned out to be a prank but the winner of a raffle held by St. John’s School in Marlborough has won the opportunity to do this for real – this Thursday, 29th April at 3pm they will get the chance to knock down the former headmaster’s office at the old school site on Chopping Knife Lane.

Beth Pope, who won the top prize, will get the chance to take part in a supervised demolition of part of the former school building, organised by local company Lawson Group Ltd who are undertaking the demolition at the site, and the UK’s premier house builders Crest Nicholson.

Beth will be invited on-site at 3 pm on Thursday 29 April to take part in a health and safety briefing, before being kitted up in protective clothing. She will then climb on board one of Lawson Group’s state of the art Caterpillar machines before being guided and supervised by a fully qualified and experienced demolition operative as she helps commence the knocking down the former office of the Headmaster of the school.

The demolition works are currently underway to clear the site of the former St. John’s School buildings to make way for housing being constructed by Crest Nicholson. Building has already started at the site and will continue once the demolition is completed. Martin Wilson, Director of local business Lawson Demolition said “We are delighted to have Beth on site to take part in the demolition; it is the chance of a lifetime, to get to knock down a Headmaster’s office – I’m sure there are plenty of kids out there who would love the chance! We are also very pleased to be involved with Crest Nicholson in the redevelopment of this site to make way for fantastic new housing. We have spent great care planning the health and safety for competition winner, and we hope that Beth enjoys the day.”