Highway engineers overcome rock slide safety concern….with unsafe practice!

Rock slides are, of course, a major safety hazard; and highway engineers around the world have devised numerous ways to prevent them.

But few of these methods are as hair-brained and hazardous as those employed by the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDT) which has taken it upon itself to suspend a breaker-equipped mini excavator and a seemingly suicidal operator on a wooden platform suspended from a crane.

From this precarious position, the breaker is used to pry loose rock from the rock face above US 64….at least when the mini excavator isn’t swinging or revolving in an uncontrolled manner.

We would like to embed the video here but, apparently, foresight is not a strong point for TDT so you’ll have to click here if you want to watch some of the least safe practice it has been my misfortune to witness.

Demolition News to partner with Ecomondo exhibition in Italy.

We are delighted to announce that Demolition News has just signed a partnership agreement with the organisers of the Ecomondo exhibition and seminar that is scheduled to take place in Rimini, Italy in November this year.

Ecomondo is the largest expo of green technologies and new lifestyles, a special forum for business in the environmental and sustainability sectors.

The previous Ecomondo event was attended by 63,332 visitors and 443 accredited Italian and international journalists. 1,050 the exhibiting companies covering 75,000 sq. m. 213 conferences (18 international) with more than 1,350 speakers and 11,000 attendees.

We will be keeping you up to speed with more information on this exciting event closer to the date.

Authorities invite demolition contractors to submit applications to be on an approved list.

The municipality of Abu Dhabi is assessing which companies should be allowed to rip down buildings, amid charges that most of them are “shady, dodgy operations”.

Leading contractors praised the move as a sign the capital is serious about the potentially harmful health and environmental effects of careless destruction of dilapidated structures, some of which contain asbestos, a carcinogen.

The process should also rule out the “smash-and-bash merchants” working on large projects, said Ed Forero, who has registered his company, GTS Demolition, for pre-qualification.

“Ninety-nine per cent of them are shady, dodgy operations,” he said of other demolition companies.

He would like to see the municipality “whittle it down to five or six [companies] that can conduct demolitions in the area”.

Read more here.

Despite tragedy that killed 7 workers, Malaysians continue to demolish without permits.

Even after the former Jaya Supermarket tragedy that killed seven workers, a contractor carrying out demolition work at the former police quarters in the Damansara New Village insists on doing so without a valid permit.

During a visit by StarMetro to the site at the village in Section 17, Petaling Jaya, on Saturday, the area was hoarded up and heavy machinery has started demolishing work on one of the buildings.

Several workers in safety hats were also seen inside the other building.

The workers stopped work when Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) councillor Mak Khuin Weng arrived at the site. He said the contractor should not be doing any work because they did not apply for a permit from the council.

Read more here.

Contractor behind last week’s carbon monoxide incident has keen ordered off the site.

The subcontractor authorities said accidentally caused high carbon monoxide levels that sickened nearly a dozen people Monday has been removed from ongoing construction at the Giant Food Store.

“As a result of this incident, Diplomat Demolition has been removed from the job,” said Giant spokesman Christopher Brand.

The store was evacuated Monday about 9:30 p.m. after carbon monoxide gas reached dangerous levels due to the use of a propane-powered tile cutter in a confined area inside the store, authorities said. Fire officials compared it to running a car inside a closed garage.

Eleven people were sent to hospitals after the incident, at least three with potentially life-threatening conditions, authorities said. Ten were released by Tuesday, and the final patient was discharged from the hospital Wednesday, Brand said.

Read more here.

What do you buy the demolition man who has everything…?

Tired of being kept in the dark? Want to come out of the shadows? Desperate to shine a light on your company? Than do we have the product for you:

Introducing the Wrecking Ball Lamp.

Further information on this and other equally industrial looking lighting solutions can be found here.

New video shows inside of Presidio Frei Caneca implosion.

A few days ago, we posted a very raw video showing the implosion of the eight buildings that made up Rio’s oldest prison.

Thanks to our friend Fabio Bruno Pinto, we now have the more professional version to share with you.

Enjoy!

A sudden but prolonged upturn in visitors to jobs website could be another green shoot.

As much as we’re in the demolition business, we’re in the website business; so like demolition companies watch their profit, loss and turnover figures, we take an eager (almost obsessive) interest in the number of people visiting the various industry websites with which we’re involved.

Of course, demolitionnews.com continues to grow and is now adding new subscribers on a daily basis. But, perhaps more telling is the number of visits to our demolition-jobs.co.uk website.

As you may recall, this website was created as a joint venture between demolitionnews.com and the UK’s National Federation of Demolition Contractors to help short and long-term unemployed demolition professionals industry back into gainful employment within the industry. The formula was simple – Unemployed demolition workers could register their details and advertise their availability to work free of charge; demolition companies seeking workers could view those details and contact those umemployed individuals directly.

Although like most websites demolition-jobs.co.uk sees regular peaks and troughs in the number of people viewing the site, there has been a sudden and prolonged burst of interest over the past two weeks. Indeed, the number of visits in the past seven days was more than the total number in both October and November 2009.

Could this be a sign that demolition companies are rebuilding the workforces decimated by the recession? We’d love to hear your views.

And if you are either seeking employment or seeking employees, please be sure to join the growing numbers looking at demolition-jobs.co.uk.

New video features demolition and a rock guitar soundtrack; what’s not to love?

Jewel Attachments 2010 Promo from Stephen SetteDucati on Vimeo.

Reports from China say machine operator behind death of protestor is being questioned.

A Chinese dozer driver is being questioned by Wuhan police after a 69-year old woman died trying to stop her home being demolished.

Her family said Wang Cuihua was buried alive when she fell in a pit and the driver dumped earth on her, today’s Southern Metropolis Daily reported. But Wuhan authorities in central China’s Hubei Province say her death was an accident, although the driver is being questioned by police.

Wang’s son Chen Yongfa said his mother was arguing with the demolition crew of about 30 young men armed with cleavers when she fell into a pit. He told the newspaper that the bulldozer moved slowly and dumped earth over her.

Read more here.