Coverage of Lorain smokestack demolition fail to address safety issue.

The demolition of a school and its associated buildings is always likely to be an emotional and contentious issue. And the ongoing demolition of the Lorain High School in Cleveland is no exception, with many former teachers and students upset that the building could not be re-used or at least partially salvaged.

But all of this pales when compared to the method used to bring down the last of the school’s major structures.

With local media and former alumni attention focused upon this project, was it really such a good idea to break out the bottom of the stack, allowing it to fall perilously close to the excavator and its operator?

With 9,000 structures needing demolition, Houston could become demolition central…BUT

As we all know, there’s a huge difference between “in need of demolition” and “being demolished”. Budgets have to be approved, tenders submitted and agreed, environmental studies need to be conducted, planning permission needs to be obtained. And heaven forbid that a bat, vole, snake or rare insect is found while these processes are progressing at roughly the speed of wind erosion.

However, even with all that taken into consideration, Houston’s demolition contractors must surely be rubbing their hands together at the prospect ofa glut of work following research by the Houston Chronicle that has highlighted some 9,000 structures that are in need of or are overdue for demolition.

But before the collective Houston demolition contractors place an order for a new Ferrari or even think about clearing some of the debts they’ve accumulated over the past 18 months, city officials say they lack enough inspectors to address all the decrepit structures and the demolition approval process is lengthy.

So close, and yet so far!

South African cooling towers face demolition following reinforcement ring failure.

The two cooling towers at the decommissioned Athlone power station in Cape Town will be demolished after a reinforcement ring around one structure collapsed early Sunday.

The N2 was briefly closed as a precaution after the ring, fitted 18 years ago, crashed to the ground, Alderman Clive Justus from the mayoral committee for utilities said in a statement. He said the highway was reopened after structural engineers advised that there was no danger to passing cars.

Justus said the landmark towers would be torn down as soon as the council had studied a report by engineers and put in place measures to ensure municipal services were not disrupted.

Read more here.

Dykon implodes 13-storey M. L. King Tower in Atlanta.

While the eyes of the demolition world were focused on West Palm Beach for the implosion of the 30-storey 1515 tower, over in Atlanta Dykon was going about its daily business, imploding a considerably smaller 13-storey M. L. King Tower in Atlanta.

It’s a contract that will break few (if any) records and was completed without fuss or media spotlight. But what the job lacked in razzmatazz, it certainly made up in sheer sound volume:

Yesterday saw the world’s third largest explosive demolition take place in West Palm Beach.

Initial reports suggest that the long-awaited implosion of the 1515 tower in West Palm Beach was delayed by several minutes when an individual claiming to be part of a TV news crew encroached upon the exclusion zone set up by Advanced Explosive Demolition (AED). Further news coverage claimed that a neighbouring building had been damaged by fly rock ejected by the implosion.

It remains to be seen whether such things will detract from the feat performed by the AED in carrying out the world’s third tallest building implosion.

A full report of the implosion can be found here but, before reading that, we would strongly recommend that you view this excellent video first:

Combined K-25/K-27 facility demolition and clean-up set to pass billion dollar mark.

At a time when some demolition companies are struggling merely to survive and others are making ends meet by selling their souls to the media devil comes news that the clean-up and demolition operation at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge facility may have already surpassed the billion dollar mark.

According to blogger Frank Munger’s latest post: The cost of the giant demolition and cleanup project at K-25 has been on the rise for years, so when talking with Dept. of Energy Manager Gerald Boyd the other day I asked him if it’d reached the billion-dollar level.

“The thing that changed was that nobody knew the structural condition of that facility until, I guess it was in 2006, when we had a fall accident (a worker fell through a floor) and discovered that the integrity of the building was a lot worse than we thought,” Boyd said. That, in turn, required a complete reassessment of how to take down the building, he said.

Read more here.

Hefty fines for two UK demolition companies following accident that killed worker.

Two UK demolition companies have today been fined a total of £115,000 after a labourer was killed by a falling steel prop. Essex based John F Hunt Demolition Ltd and Bayoak Demo Ltd of London both pleaded guilty to Health and Safety breaches concerning the death of 29-year-old Rafał Przestrzelski in 2005.

The Central Criminal Court, (Old Bailey) heard Mr Przestrzelski, 29, of Wood Green, London N22, was employed as a labourer by demolition sub-contactor Bayoak Demo Ltd. The project was managed by John F Hunt Demolition Ltd, acting as principal contractor.

On 25 July 2005, Rafał Przestrzelski was told to remove a number of steel (Acrow) props supporting a slab of concrete, during the demolition of Telstar House in Paddington, London. Originally there were 13 props, but as each one was removed the load increased on the remainder until the final one was carrying the entire load.

When the props were removed, the concrete slab fell to the ground and an overloaded prop struck Mr Przestrzelski causing fatal internal injuries.

Read the full details here.

Two UK demolition companies have reported a drop in profit despite an increase in turnover.

UK trade magazine Construction News has reported that both 777 Demolition and Coleman & Co., both among the best-known of the UK’s demolition contractors, have both reported lower profits against increased turnovers.

Demolition companies Coleman and 777 Demolition both reported higher turnover but falling profit in accounts for the financial year to 30 April 2009, filed with companies house this week.

Coleman saw its turnover rise by three percent to £15.5 million while 777 enjoyed a six percent increase in turnover to £13.4 million. However, profit before tax fell by £80,000 to £0.5 million for Coleman and by £130,000, to £47,000 for 777 Demolition.

Against the backdrop of one of the worst and longest economic recessions in recent history, the fact that the companies made a profit at all is worthy of applause.

But, possibly because of the timing of this announcement following my earlier (and incorrect) piece on the Three Sisters tower blocks, something else struck me about these figures. As avid reader Jack Westwood pointed out earlier today, Coleman & Co. is the proud owner of the UK’s largest high reach excavator, while 777 owns and operates the country’s third largest high reach.

We might be adding two and two to make five here; but it will be interesting to see the figures posted by DSM – owner of the UK’s second biggest high reach!

Read the full story here.

Failure to disconnect services leaves residents angry and contractor in danger.

It is in the nature of local newspapers to take the side of the poor local resident forced to endure the suffering caused by nearby demolition work. A case in point is this report from the Peebleshire News that bears the headline: Anger Over Demolition Blunders in Peebles.

It then goes on to highlight the “litany of gaffes” made by Coleman & Co., the contractor in question.

However, for those of a demolition persuasion, the article fails to address that perennial elephant in the room; the fact that the client had failed to disconnect the utility services on the site.

Admittedly, if the accusations about the incorrect handling of asbestos and the dislodging of a telepgraph pole are proved correct, then Coleman & Co. will have some explaining to do.

But the temporary loss of telephone connection surely pales into insignificance compared to the loss of life that could have been caused by the service disconnection “oversight”.

Demolition underway on three tower blocks in England’s North West.

The skyline over the twon of Middleton is set to change forever this week as work begins to demolish the Langley tower blocks. The towers, known locally as Three Sisters, are being demolished by PGC Demolition using the UK’s largest third largest high reach excavator that is on cross-hire from 777 Demolition.

The tower blocks are being demolished as part of the estate’s multi-million pound Housing Market Renewal (HMR) programme which aims to revitalise the local housing market by tearing down defunct properties to make way for new housing.

Click here to read more or watch the video below.