K-33 uranium enrichment structure to go way of K-25 and K-27

The US Department of Energy on Tuesday released a request for proposals to demolish the K-33 building as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-funded cleanup program in Oak Ridge.

The K-33 building is a 260,000 square metre (2.8 million-square-foot) structure that was decommissioned and cleaned up by BNFL Inc. in the 1990s as part of reindustrialization efforts at the government’s former uranium-enrichment plant. The processing equipment was removed, as well as most of the hazardous materials left from the old operations there. But subsequent efforts to find an industrial tenant for K-33 were unsuccessful. That’s why the old building is being torn down.

A demolition contract will be awarded by DOE’s Consolidated Business Center in Cincinnati, which uses a nationwide Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contracting tool for the federal cleanup program.

The project will involve demolition of the building and disposal of wastes, most of which will be sent to DOE’s landfills on the federal reservation in Oak Ridge.

DOE plans to use some of the Recovery Act funding that was saved when DOE opted to scale back another project at the nearby K-27 building. About $118 million in stimulus funding had been set aside for preliminary work on K-27 to set the stage for its demolition later. Now, however, DOE plans to spend only $20 million on the K-27 work, wrapping up that activity by September 2010. That means about $90 million is available for other projects.

Read more here.

Those people gawking from your site permieter may be afflicted with a common illness.

We’ve all seen them, armed with their cameras, camcorders and mobile phones at the ready, peering through the site perimeter fencing and offering health and safety advice to anyone in earshot. But, apparently, these individuals with a strange fixation on the demolition business are not merely gawkers and rubberneckers.

According to an article in the Jackson Citizen Patriot, these people are more rightly known as demaholics, people addicted to demolition.

So, in honour of the famous 12-point plan: My name is Mark and I am a demaholic. I have been clean for the past 48 hours (here’s where you applaud) but there is a hard hat sat on my desk alongside my camera…..and maybe a quick look at a local demolition site wouldn’t be too bad….it would only be a quick look, and then I could get clean again

Work underway in Nashville to clear the way for new Music City Convention Center.

Chances are, there’s a country music song that bemoans the demolition of an old and much-loved building to be replaced by a fancy new structure. If that’s the case, it will certainly be getting an airing in Nashville, the home of country music as the demolition crews begin work on a contract to clear the way for the creation of a new Music City Convention Center.

See the video of the initial demolition work below, or click here for the full story.

When is an implosion not an explosion? When there’s an expert involved!

When thousands of area residents line the sidewalks at 9 a.m. Sunday to watch the 1515 Tower crumble to the ground, they won’t be watching an implosion. Or an explosion.

“An implosion would indicate that there was a vacuum created in the process and that, of course, does not occur,” said Ron Lynn, director of development for Nevada’s Clark County, who has overseen 12 “implosions” of Las Vegas casinos and hotels.

But don’t call it an explosion, either, Lynn said. “Explosion people think about something blowing up. That does not occur. What happens is, you use explosive materials in critical structural connections to allow gravity to bring it down.”

Still, Lynn said, implosion has become the term of convenience for arguably the most fascinating feat in demolition.

Read more here.

A new video captures both the demolition AND reconstruction of a St Louis bridge.

We have all seen time-lapse videos showing the demolition of various structures, with bridges being among the most popular. But this is the first time we can recall anyone leaving the camera running for long enough to also capture the subsequent reconstruction:

Thirteen-year old Chinese hotel falls under explosives spell.

It may have been just 13 years old but the four-star Five Lakes Hotel in Nanchang, China has already been demolished to make way for a five-star replacement.

The demolition – captured on video here – has been condemned as wasteful by local residents who are concerned at what will become of the 40,000 tonnes generated by this weekend’s blast.

Read the full story here.

New video showing the implosion of the Rydges Hotel in Doha, Qatar.

Cranes and excavators replace pyrotechnics on low-key Las Vegas demolition

In a town famed for its demolition pyrotechnics, the demolition of the Queen of Hearts hotel and casino has proved to be a remarkably low-key affair, a fact highlighted in this no razzmatazz video:

UK-based Erith Group oversees chimney implosion at giant Northfleet site.

Erith Group, one of the UK’s leading demolition contractors, has imploded a large chimney on what is believed to be Europe’s largest demolition project at Lafarge’s former cement works at Northfleet, Kent. Covering an area of some 34 hectares and incorporating more than 70 buildings and structures, the demolition is scheduled to take two years.

Health and safety violations continue to plague the “Tombstone at Ground Zero”.

Located, as it is, beside the scene of the US’ worst peace time atrocity, the Deutsche Bank building in Manhattan has been under the media spotlight since that fateful day in 2001. So you would have thought that, with the eyes of the world upon it, the demolition contractors involved in removing this contaminated blot on the Ground Zero landscape would have put safety first, particularly after the death of two firefighters in the building in 2007.

However, as a letter to contractor Bovis Lend Lease on 29 January points out, the building remains the subject of grave safety concerns following a recent and ongoing spate of accidents and safety violations.

In the letter, letter, LMDC President David Emil warned contractor Bovis Lend Lease that its safety record at the site was a “failure” and its management of the job “unacceptable.” Emil ordered Bovis to shake up top staff and overhaul safety operations immediately.

“There has been a failure by senior management at Bovis to properly manage safety issues,” Emil told The New York Daily News. “We have grave concerns about the quality of their work, and we’re expressing that very forcefully to them.”

It is little wonder. Last month alone, the city Buildings Department slapped Bovis or its subcontractors with at least a dozen safety violations, alleging offenses that could endanger the lives of workers and the safety of the public. That’s more infractions in a single month than any time since the seven-alarm fire. Bovis would not address specific violations; it plans to appeal most of them.

To read the full story, please click here. And to see a list of the health and safety infractions, click here. Alternativiely, click here to view a video report.