Remarkable photos of construction and demolition work for Shanghai Expo.

Construction and demolition workers in Shanghai, China are busily completing tasks ahead of the planned opening of the 2010 World Expo on May 1st – planned to be the largest World Expo in history.

The theme of the Expo is “Better City, Better Life”, and is scheduled to run until October 31, 2010. In recent months, large construction and renovation projects have dominated much of Shanghai, in preparation for becoming the World’s stage on May 1st. Up to 800,000 visitors are expected each day – a total of 70 million visitors in all visiting exhibitions from nearly 200 participants around the world.

The photo (above) is just one of a number of remarkable shots of the preparatory works. Click here to view the rest.

With implosion just weeks away, cameras have got a last glimpse inside Texas Stadium.

GBM UK demolishes 449 tonne bridge in colliery regeneration.

UK demolition contractor GBM was awarded the contract to undertake the demolition of Cowley Bridge in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. The project was a key aspect of the regeneration of the closed Smithy Wood Colliery in order to develop the “brownfield” site, which had high economic value for the Sheffield area due to its location close to the M1. The regeneration project has been awarded £3 million of Objective 1 assistance from the European Regional Development Fund.

The project involved the demolition of a 449 tonne bridge with a 43 metre single-span. The demolition required the overnight closure of the A629, which the bridge spanned. A team of four 360 machines was used to complete the demolition of the concrete deck bridge, allowing the bridge to be demolished completely in-situ, and to facilitate the removal of the waste material.

The planning of the demolition work also had to ensure the protection of the road surface of the A629 which ran directly under the Cowley Bridge. During the demolition process the surface of the A629 was protected by placing steel plates across the carriageway, which were then covered in 1 metre of hardcore ensuring the road surface and the local telecommunication services were protected and fully operational at the end of the project.

The project had a tight 32 hour time frame to work, which had to be met to reduce the effects of further road closures on the local traffic infrastructure. The project was completed on time and the A629 was even re-opened 18 hours ahead of schedule.

Video footage shows top tier of Yankee Stadium being pulled down.

Yankee Stadium, the world-famous former home of the New York Yankees known by locals as the House that Ruth Built, is undergoing demolition. And despite city concerns that the demolition works were taking longer than had been anticipated, the following video shows that thing sare now moving apace:

Initial reports suggest demolition of Presidio Frei Caneca in Brazil went without a hitch.

The camera work is shaky, the implosion doesn’t happen until two and a half minutes into the video, and the resulting dust cloud obscures the latter stages of the blast. But this initial footage of the implosion of prison in Rio de Janeiro is impressive nonetheless, even though it’s impossible to tell if it matched the Applied Science simulation we brought you last week.

Onlooker hurt by falling debris from high reach excavator.

Just two weeks ago, Demolition News attended a two-day discussion on the safe use of high reach excavators. During those discussions, one of the key aspects was the need for exclusions zones around the machine while it is in operation.

Those discussions were brought into stark focus this weekend when an elderly woman was struck int he chest by debris that had apparently bounced off the back of the high reach boom.

Unfortunately, the accompanying video cannot be embedded here but the full story and the video is available on the Yorkshire Evening Post website here.

Demolition News is today at the National Federation of Demolition Contractors’s Annual General Meeting in London.

if you can’t be there in person yourself, just head over to here and watch the proceedings live.

We are hoping to begin broadcasting from 10.30 onwards.

We will also be recording the key speeches for broadcast after the event so please be sure to check back next week for the highlights.

Video from US contractor demonstrates concern for glass, not worker.

California clearly cares for its residents. The state has some of the most stringent emissions regulations in the world. It has banned smoking in public, and you can ask for “fat free sugar” to accompany your decaf coffee.

Which is why this video showing the breaking prowess of Bernardo Concrete Inc. seems strangely at odds with its native California philosophy of putting people first. For when faced with having to break a rather flimsy concrete slab immediately beside a glass and steel-fronted building, the company chose not to erect any form of safety barrier or hoarding to protect the structure from fly-rock.

Nope.

Instead, they opted for the tried-and-tested method of handing a small piece of rubber mat to a man wearing little or nothing in the way of personal protective equipment (no hard hat or safety goggles, certainly) and asking him to act as a human shield.

Will they never learn?

Marlon County proposals to waive C&D waste disposal fees flies in face of environment.

Demolition contractors on either side of the Atlantic share an unseen bond; they are working in a rough, tough business where the risks and resulting camaraderie are on a par with those experienced in military service.

The US and the UK demolition industries do have their differences, however. We have almost universally embraced high reach excavators while our US cousins still prefer to send for the wrecking ball or explosives; while the Yanks “shoot” buildings, the Limeys “pop” them.

But semantics aside, the one area where opinion remains divided is on the recycling of construction and demolition waste. In the UK (and across Europe for that matter), waste is all but forbidden, and a combination of legislation and highly taxed disposal charges have all but eliminated the process of sending potentially reusable materials to landfill. Despite some significant shifts, particularly among some of the larger US demolition companies, waste is still perceived as a by-product; something to be disposed of. And, based on this latest news story, it’s little wonder.

According to a report in the Peabody Gazette-Bulletin, Marion County Commissioners hope a plan to waive fees for demolition debris disposal will encourage property owners to replace dilapidated structures. If the plan is approved, property owners will be able to apply for a permit, which would waive the $40 per ton fee the county levies for demolition debris. The permit would be issued from the Planning and Zoning Department. It would require a $50 fee to inspect for hazardous materials, and if such materials are found, another $50 inspection to verify proper disposal.

So while on this side of the pond Landfill Tax is subject to an annual price hike with no upper limit, in the US it’s perfectly acceptable to not only allow the disposal of C&D waste but to actively encourage it?

New York City officials defend timeline for landmark stadium contract.

As the old Yankee Stadium continues to be demolished, city and Bronx officials announced Wednesday that the surrounding neighborhood will soon receive enough replacement park land.

The upper deck of the “House That Ruth Built” is being torn down piece by piece. Officials said today that the entire upper deck will come down in three weeks and the entire structure will be razed by June.

Park advocates are upset that the demolition has taken so long, but city officials said Yankee Stadium cannot be compared to Shea Stadium, which came down right away.

“You’re in the middle of a neighborhood, you have major transportation structure right next to the stadium. We need to do this in a safe way,” said Economic Development Corporation Chairman Seth Pinsky. “The good news is that in the meantime, we’ve accomplished an enormous amount. We’ve opened a number of parks, we’ve built the parking garages, we’ve built a new Metro-North station.”

“This reason why this is taking so long is that I believe, and what the community believes, is that there was much for of a focus in making sure that the new stadium goes up across the street,” said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. “The Yankees did not know whether or not they were going they were going to be able to open the new ball field for the start of the new season, so they kept the footprint here just in case.”

Read more and watch the video here.