New wrecking ball video game is in advanced stages of development.

It seems that producers of video games have an endless fascination with this industry of ours – regular readers will recall our previous reports on the games Demolition Company and Demolition City.

But it appears that even these two popular (and addictive) games cannot satisfy the gaming industry’s desire to play with “big boys toys” so it comes as no great surprise to learn that yet another demolition-based game is in development.

Although details are somewhat scant at present, the leaked graphics suggest that the new game will follow a similar style to that of Demolition City but will put the player at the controls of a crawler crane/wrecking ball rather than arming them with an inexhaustible supply of high explosives.

Apparently, the game is still more than a month away; plenty of time to disconnect my Internet connection to ensure that I don’t fall under the addicitive spell of yet another online productivity killer!

Read more here.

The World Cup is just a week away…so which team are you following.

OK, so the sun is out, it’s a Friday afternoon, God is in his heaven and all is right with the world. So we’re just putting demolition to one side to talk about something else for just a second.

In seven days time, the eyes of the football (soccer, if you prefer) world will turn towards South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, a once-every-four-years excuse for nationalism, jingoism and unexpected illness that just happen to coincide with your chosen country’s next fixture (not a problem in this office; there’s a 50 inch plasma tuned almost permanently to Sky Sports!!)

So, given that we have a global and almost exclusively male audience, we thought we’d invite you to let us know which countries you will be supporting, which country you expect to win, and which country you would love to see knocked out first.

We’ll start the ball rolling, predictably, as follows:

Supporting – England
Expected Winners – Brazil
Most like to see knocked out – France

Please use the comments area (in blue, below) to let us have your thoughts.

Oh, and by the way…

COME ON ENGLAND!!

National Geographic Channel releases demolition “Tools of the Trade” video.

OK, the voiceover is aimed at people that have never set foot on a demolition site in their lives, but this video focus on Ahrens’ demolition of St Louis’ Bush Stadium is still worth a viewing.

DemolitionNews.com unveils first edition of new EDA magazine.

We are delighted to bring you the first edition of a new electronic newsletter that we have produced in conjunction with the European Demolition Association.

This newsletter rounds up just about everything that took place at the EDA’s recent Spring Conference in Warsaw and also takes a timely look ahead to the association’s Autumn Conference that will take place in Stockholm in September.

We trust that you enjoy this first issue and look forward to receiving your comments.

Athlone Towers to be imploded “as soon as possible”.

Jet Demolition, the appointed firm to demolish the Athlone cooling towers, and Knight Piésold Consulting, which have been appointed to investigate engineering solutions to the structural instability of the two cooling towers, are working closely together with the City to properly cover all aspects of demolishing the towers at the Athlone Power Station as soon as possible.

Two consulting firms recommended that the towers be demolished after reinforced concrete stiffening rings on one of the towers collapsed on 14 February this year. Jet Demolition was appointed last week and has 60 days from the date of their appointment to demolish the towers. The Environmental Team at Knight Piésold has been tasked with addressing the environmental issues associated with the demolition process.

“The high safety risks associated with a project of this nature requires that adequate attention be given to the technical preparation for demolition, therefore we could not implode the towers by the end of May 2010 as we had hoped. The Project Team will, however, work as quickly as possible to ensure a safe and accurate implosion in a controlled manner. The Project Team is obviously concerned about the safety risks during the preparation of the towers for implosion and will therefore have safety specialists involved in this planning. Further to this, the City has an emergency plan in place that will be activated should the need arise,” says Alderman Clive Justus, Mayoral Committee Member for Utility Services.

Read the full story here.

Ongoing Chinese protests results in death of four demolition workers.

Four demolition workers were killed and 11 people were injured after a villager drove a truck into them in protest yesterday in north China’s Henan Province.

Police are hunting for the driver Liu Danao from Nanliuzhuang Village in Henan’s Zhengzhou City, today’s Henan Business Daily reported.

Read the full story here.

Staten Island Parks Department cans demolition company hired previous week.

The Staten Island Parks Department has fired the Brooklyn-based demolition company it hired last week to handle demolition of the Cromwell Center in Tompkinsville — just hours after local newspaper the Staten Island Advance published a story revealing the company’s troubled history.

The Advance reported today that MRC’s principal officer, 67-year-old Grasmere resident Ronald D’Agostino, spent 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to federal mail fraud in 1994. D’Agostino’s criminal record is the reason why, in 2008, MRC II was barred for life from doing any waste management business with the city.

As noted in the Vendor Information Exchange System: “Registration was denied because applicant’s president was convicted of mail fraud, a racketeering activity…and did provide false information to the Business Integrity Commission and engaged in long-term unlicensed trade waste activity.”

MRC II also defaulted on a contract with the city Department of Design and Construction (DDC) last October, following a determination by the agency that the contractor was “non-responsible” and “lacked the requisite business integrity” to work for them.

Read more here.

For those that couldn’t make it to Warsaw, we captured all the presentations.

In addition to appointing a new president and vice president, the European Demolition Association Spring Conference in Poland also contained a whole host of interesting (and multi-lingual) presentations. While we are working on the newsletter to commemorate this event, here’s the raw video content for those that couldn’t make it to Warsaw (and for those that did but who like to see themselves on screen).

Copes of the variouys PowerPoint presentations can be found by clicking here and then hitting the various red links.

Former EDA president Yves Canessa declares the conference open (in French):

EDA Activity Report, EDA general manager Henriette Thuen (in English):

Decontamination of hazardous waste, president of the decontamination of hazardous waste association, Adolfo Garcia (in Spanish):

Liebherr demolition equipment product range update, Miche Roth (in English):

Demolition of the Stadio delle Alpi football stadium, Fabrizio Amadei and Massimo Marini of F.LLi Baraldi (in English):

A video of this project in progress will be posted shortly.

Reducing the administrative burden on demolition contractors, Martha Bird, Ramboll Management Consulting (in English):

Introducing the new EDA high reach guidance, Stefano Panseri, EDA (in Italian)…please forgive the opening few seconds but we were making some vital battery changes!!

Video shows why suits and sledgehammers don’t mix.

Last month, the National Nuclear Security Administration helped unveil a new $60 million Heating Systems Modernization (HSM) project at Sandia National Laboratories and the start of demolition of an 1,672 square metre (18,000-square-foot) steam plant that has been part of the skyline at Sandia for more than 60 years.

The demolition of the obsolete facility marks the completion of the NNSA’s $60 million Heating System Modernization program, which is part of the NNSA’s Facilities and Infrastructure Recapitalization Program (FIRP). FIRP is aimed at reducing a large maintenance backlog, improving the state of site utilities, and eliminating excess facilities across the nation’s nuclear weapons enterprise.

But as this video shows, dignitaries really should leave demolition to the professionals!

The EDA presidency changed hands this weekend; and we captured the event live.

As we reported earlier today, the European Demolition Association has a new president, Giuseppe Panseri. The official handover took place this weekend at the Hall of Physics in Warsaw, Poland and DemolitionNews.com captured the momentous occasion in this (very raw) multi-lingual video.

Unfortunately, despite its magnificent appearance, the Hall of Physics boasts acoustics that make the video sound like it was recorded inside a large dustbin. But crank up the volume and you will hear the handover by former president Yves Canessa, the acceptance by new president Panseri, and the appointment of new EDA vice-president, Pilar de la Cruz.