Demolition crews are salvaging New Orleans’ historic buildings, one piece at a time.
It’s nearly five years since Hurricane Katrina ripped through “The Big Easy” and still the clen-up operation continues. But, as this news report from Louisiana’s WWLTV explains, what the clean-up might lack in haste, it is making up in environmental friendliness.
Implosion will mark the end for Courtaulds factory chimney.
A towering chimney stack and water tower on a former manufacturing site in Coventry are to be imploded this weekend.
The 50 metre (164 ft) chimney stack and 30 metre (98 ft) water tower are on the site of the former Courtaulds factory in Little Heath but will be demolished on Sunday.
At its height, in the 1950s and 1960s, Little Heath Works employed about 5,000 staff producing acetate yarns.
Read more here.
City and state confusions bring demolition of former brewery to a halt.
Legal issues are stalling the demolition of a crumbling downtown Syracuse building that has forced the closure of a section of interstate highway, disrupting the daily commute for tens of thousands of people.
The city of Syracuse has the authority to tear down the former brewery along Interstate 81 but wants the state to pay for it. The state says it will pay but doesn’t know if it has the authority to demolish the building.
The building’s owner has said he doesn’t want authorities to demolish the structure unless he can avoid being billed for the work, estimated at more than $1 million.
Read more here.
Taco Bell demolished to make way for….Taco Bell!
It is a sight that will gladden the hearts of dieticians and good food lovers the world over as a pair of excavators tear down a Taco Bell restaurant in Virginia Beach. But in a twist that is oddly reminiscent of the 1993 movie Demolition Man in which all restaurants are Taco Bell, it is to be replaced by – yes, you guessed it – another Taco Bell.
It will open in April, said Mark Wawner, the city’s project development manager. Taco Bell is not what city officials say they want at Town Center, but there’s nothing they can do about it.
“There’s a long-term land lease on the property that Taco Bell controls, so they have total rights to the property,” Wawner said.
Read the full story here or watch the video below.
Locals to watch implosion from former parking lot.
Irving city officials have released details for how North Texans can witness first-hand the April 11 implosion of Texas Stadium from the stadium’s red lot, east of the intersection of State Highway 114 and Loop 12.
Locals will not be allowed to watch from the right of ways on surrounding highways.
Traffic on the highways around the stadium will be stopped for about 30 minutes the morning of the implosion, which is scheduled to happen shortly after dawn.
However, we sincerely hope that, when it happens, the implosion will not look like this.
Another video demonstrating how NOT to use a wrecking ball.
Wrecking ball plummets to Earth as bystanders look on.
There appears to have been some form of misunderstanding here. Wrecking balls normally wreck buildings or structures, not themselves:
Caterpillar dozer pulls down disused water tower.
The last water tower that once served Hanford’s plutonium-production reactors along the Columbia River has come crashing down.
Workers were lifted to just below the tank of the 38 metre (125-foot) tall water tower at D Reactor to attach a cable. Then a Caterpillar dozer pulled the 80 metre (263-foot) cable until the tower toppled.
“It was satisfying to see it pull away from the base,” said Bob Smith, Washington Closure Hanford project director for deactivation and demolition.
Read the full story here or watch the video below:
Hibs fans wave goodbye to Easter Road’s East Terrace as demolition work begins.
It is a sight to sadden Hibernian fans and raise a cheer from the fans of local rival Hearts of Midlothian as work to demolish Easter Road’s East Terrace begins in earnest.
Full demolition is now under way, before work begins to create a new, larger capacity East Stand which will house 6,400 supporters and increase the ground’s capacity to 20,250.
The new facility will not be completed until after the start of the next season but fans who held season tickets for the East terrace have been given replacement seats in the South stand. They will also be given priority when the new stand opens for seat selection.
Manager John Hughes said: “The completion of Easter Road Stadium will make it one of the finest footballing venues in the country, and I’m excited about the team playing in what will be a real fortress. Easter Road will only get louder with the new stand and we can’t wait for it to be completed and opened.”
Read the full story here.
£100,000 fines for UK council and demolition contractor.
Rotherham Council and demolition contractor Brocklebank have been fined over £100,000 ($110,000) after a worker was killed by a reversing truck during a road surfacing operation.
Gordon Duffield, a council employee, was knocked down by an eight-wheeled tipper wagon operated by Brocklebank, as it delivered asphalt to a site on Fitzwilliam Road, Rotherham, on 4 May 2007.
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council was fined £75,000 and ordered to pay £18,350 costs in relation to the incident after pleading guilty to a section 2(1) breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 at Doncaster Crown Court.
Sheffield-based Brocklebank also pleaded guilty to a breach of section 3(1) of the same legislation, and was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay £12,000 costs.
Coming just a few days after a US demolition company was fined the paltry sum of $4,200 (£2,800) over the accidental death of a worker, we have to ask why there is such a vast discrepancy on either side of the Atlantic and, of course, whether £100,000 is a more accurate cost of a human life.
My own personal feeling is that a human life is beyond cost; but £100,000 is far closer than
Read the full story here.
