Demolition work is underway at the Evansville Executive Inn.

The first swings of the wrecking claw are hitting Evansville’s Executive Inn Tuesday morning. Demolition on the one-story portion of the hotel began at 8:00 a.m. Crews will first work to take down the indoor pool area, office and ballroom space before moving on to the larger tower portion of the building.

The immediate demolition will allow for prep work to begin on the new downtown arena which will sit in the footprint of the old hotel. The front portion of the hotel will be remodeled and renamed in the coming year.

Read more and view the video here.

Demolition of a prominent Basingstoke eyesore has begun.

Rye Demolition has started the serious business of pulling down Brook House, in Alencon Link, Basingstoke, Hants..

The company has been stripping fixtures, fittings and asbestos from the building since October 19, and, after removing 14 huge skips full of material, the firm has now started using a mechanical claw to dismantle the structure.

Read more here.

James Madison University’s Bridgeforth Stadium is being demolished; watch it live.

A construction project designed to transform Bridgeforth Stadium into the pre-eminent college football environment at the Football Championship Subdivision is under way. When completed in the fall of 2011, the stadium capacity will be about 25,000, an increase of 10,000 seats, and sight lines will be improved for all seats on the west side. In addition, the west side will feature a club level, hospitality suites and a new media center.

Construction will be done in phases so that Bridgeforth Stadium will still be the home of the Dukes in 2010. Between the end of the 2009 season and the start of the 2010 season, the old west stands will be torn down and rebuilt. Following the 2010 season, construction will continue on the hospitality suites and club section, and begin on the upper deck of the west side and on the north end zone.

A webcam is following all the action – Click here to see the latest view of work in progress. (The image changes each minute but you have to refresh your browser manually)

Radio 4 programme Brick by Brick offers unique take on deconstruction.

Most TV and radio programmes that feature demolition tend to focus on the crash and bang of explosive works. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I saw or heard a programme that captured the delicacy of a facade retention and deconstruction project.

So the Brick by Brick programme produced by Katie Burningham at Falling Tree and broadcast earlier this morning on BBC Radio 4 was both unique and refreshing in roughly equal measure. The programme featured an inside look at the work of Demolition Company of the Year Safedem at Aberdeen’s Marischal College.

If you missed it, it will be available for seven days via BBC iPlayer. Although it may take a few hours to appear, you can hear it here.

Dore & Associates launches legal bid for compensation.

Dore & Associates of Bay City, Michigan is seeking $1.7 million in damages for losses stemming from its work in tearing down Ogg Hall, a campus fixture that had housed generations of students. The state caused expensive delays in its work and then unfairly fired Dore from the job, the company contends.

The state Department of Administration says, however, that it fired Dore & Associates in March 2008 after a series of contract violations and safety problems and that it doesn’t owe the company a dime.

The State Claims Board on Wednesday is expected to consider denying the company damages. If it does, Dore & Associates would likely file a lawsuit seeking them, chief executive officer Arthur Dore said.

The state hired the firm to demolish Ogg’s two towers but the project faced a series of problems.

First, some construction materials caught fire at the top of one of the towers in December 2007 while five of the company’s workers were inside. The workers were not able to get down the stairs, so they climbed down scaffolding set up outside the building to safety.

The final straw came on March 18, 2008, when a large block of concrete fell from one of the towers and crushed a worker’s parked vehicle below. The state terminated Dore’s contract the next day.

Read the full story here.

Demolition stunt goes horribly wrong for Finnish version of Jackass.

Just how bored do you have to be to think that being stood on top of an imploding building is a good idea? Well, judging by this video, there must be some very high levels of boredom in Finland as what appears to be the Finnish take on the Jackass TV programme goes horribly and painfully wrong.

Warning, this video contains graphic scenes of surgery that are not for the squeamish!!

Rogue demolition contractor ordered to pay back more than £176,000 in illegal profits.

William Reidy was sentenced to a 16-month prison sentence in 2007 for dumping waste, including asbestos. Now he must sell land and houses to repay the money he made breaking the law to boost profits for his firm Space Making Developments.

Bradford Crown Court today gave Reidy six months to find the cash or go to jail for 27 months. The Crown and Reidy’s defence team agreed he benefited by more than £1.7 million from his activities.

Read more here.

Early morning blowdown drops three Scottish tower blocks.

One of Scotland’s biggest ever explosive demolitions went with a bang in the early hours of Sunday morning as Glasgow Housing Association flats in Sighthill were reduced to rubble in only 15 seconds. The six blocks at 2-4 Fountainwell Terrace, 6-8 Fountainwell Square and 37-49 Fountainwell Avenue were razed in a controlled early-morning blow down in the north of the city.

The 19-storey blocks had housed 684 flats in total and were a popular landmark when they were built back in 1969. The properties were recommended for demolition following a decline in demand and popularity of the blocks, high investment and running costs and the ongoing regeneration plans for the area.

Craig Wilson, of Technical Demolition Services, said: “We are extremely happy to be involved in what has been yet another successful demolition operation working in close partnership with Glasgow Housing Association. Our aim on this project has always been to ensure that the demolition process took place as efficiently as possible with safety being the key driver and this has been achieved through hard work and excellent planning.”

An Ohio demolition worker has been fatally electrocuted at site in Carthage, Indiana.

Authorities say an Ohio man was fatally shocked when the semitrailer he was driving touched power lines at a central Indiana demolition site.

Rush County Coroner Ann Moster said Friday that 48-year-old Gary D. Colvin of Eaton, Ohio, was pronounced dead shortly after Wednesday afternoon’s accident at the former Carthage Mill.

Read more here.

Real or staged, this video of a wrecking ball hitting a passing car is certainly dramatic.