Granite lands Greenville Bridge contract.

Granite Construction Incorporated announced yesterday that Granite Construction Company has been awarded a $22.4 million contract by the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) for the demolition of the U.S. 82 Greenville Bridge located approximately 100 miles northwest of Jackson, Mississippi.

However, an industry insider informs us the granite bid was not, in fact, the lowest. A low bid of $13.5 million from an unnamed contractor was kicked out on what was originally estimated to be a $30 million project.

Read more here.

Original home of the company that brought the world Post-It Notes to tumble.

On 4 February, bids for a projected $4 million demolition of 12 campus buildings on the campus, which served as 3M’s headquarters between 1910 and 1962, will start being received. After that, the buildings, which are owned by the St. Paul Port Authority (SPPA), are to be torn down.

Louis Jambois, SPPA president, said the water tower will also come down after a two-year window for selling the old manufacturing and office buildings ends on Jan. 6, 2012.

“It’s not a functioning water tower anymore,” said Jambois. “And it would be a very expensive thing to keep” because of safety-related reasons.

Read more here.

Not content with demolishing each other, professional wrestlers are branching out.

It’s only a few months since we reported on the on/off “relationship” between former professional wrestler Gristle McLargeHuge and US contractor Dykon and yet here we are again reporting on yet more grapplers diversifying into the demolition business.

The Extreme Makeover Home Edition demolition scheduled for 5:00pm has been delayed until 7:00pm.

Today we learned how the old Suggs family home in Horry County, South Carolina would be demolished as part of the popular Extreme Makeover Home Edition TV programme; and professional wrestlers, Big Show, the Bella Twins, and R-Truth, will be helping the designers tear the house down.

When EMHE built Renee Wilson’s home in Horry County in 2007, they used a giant golf club to smash the old house – a tribute to Myrtle Beach being known as the golf capitol of the world.

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Study finds pros and cons in debate over the demolition of vacant homes.

The Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne recently completed research studying the effects of the demolition of vacant residential buildings in Fort Wayne.

The study focused on the debate about which is better for the community, leaving a vacant house standing or demolishing it. Even though both sides of the argument have their supporters, the research found that not one is better for the community than the other.

“The fact that there is no overwhelming evidence that says demolition is good, demolition is bad is actually an important finding,” said Andy Downs, with the Mike Down Center for Indiana Politics at IPFW.

Read more here or view the video news report below.

Unnamed buyer could bring Continental Airlines building back from the brink.

Tampa International Airport officials have halted demolition plans for at least a week on the former Continental Airlines reservation center fter a Realtor with a local client expressed interest in leasing the building, possibly for $600,000 annually for 10 years.

Jones Lang LaSalle, which is representing an interested party from the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, toured the vacant building and is discussing a 10 to 15 year lease, airport director Louis Miller said Tuesday before a staff meeting.

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Environmentalists welcome decision to demolish Carmel dam.

Government officials and a Monterey water company have reached an agreement to tear down a dam on the Carmel River that environmental groups say blocks the passage of endangered steelhead trout.

Under the deal reached Monday, California American Water, which owns the San Clemente Dam, will contribute $50 million toward its demolition.

Federal and state agencies will work to secure the project’s remaining $34 million cost.

Read more here.

Demolition set to commence at Baltimore’s former retail district.

The Baltimore Development Corp. will celebrate the demolition of several buildings in the so-called superblock Thursday to make way for a planned redevelopment bringing new retail, office and residential space to the area.

The soon-to-be-razed properties on Baltimore’s west side will be sold to a partnership between the Cordish Co. and Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation as part of a deal struck between them and the Baltimore Development Corp. in August 2007.

The properties, in the 200 block of Lexington Street, are just part of the city’s larger ambitions for the superblock, once a thriving retail district that has fallen into disrepair. The area is considered a key link between the city’s west side and central business district.

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The Imploders’ TV cameras are trained on a Texas feed mill this week.

Eden’s defunct Concho Feed Mill will star in an upcoming episode of “The Imploders,” a new reality show from the TLC cable channel that follows the Idaho-based Kelly family, operators of Advanced Explosives Demolition.

Kathy Keane, Eden’s economic development coordinator, said she has been working on the project since about 17 December. “It came as a tip from the Texas Department of Agriculture that ‘The Imploders’ were looking for demolition projects,” she said. “I told them we had some structures here that might work. Now just weeks later, we’re in the middle of filming.”

The Colorado-based owner of the mill, Wes E. Klett of Anipro/Xtraformance Feeds, who already had begun arrangements to demolish the nearly 58-year-old structure, agreed to let the TV team take over, Keane said.

Read more here.

New Lawson Demolition photos highlight UK’s ongoing weather problems.

About a week ago, we asked readers to send in their snowy photos to mark one of those rare occasions when the UK (together with large parts of the US and Europe) was covered in a blanket of snow. This was intended to be a brief and light-hearted way to ease readers back to work after the festive period.

However, seven days later and the snow’s still there (in fact, we had another flurry here earlier this morning) and still the photos come in.

This latest batch from Lawson Demolition clearly illustrate just how cold the UK climate is at present; and just how difficult work conditions have become.

City officials climb behind the levers to kickstart Lorain city redevelopment.

With backhoes and hard hats, Lorain city officials tore down the first abandoned home targeted by the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

Lorain Mayor Tony Krasienko said yesterday’s demolition officially kicked off the start of the program, which is funded by a $3.03 million federal grant. Nearly 45 homes in the city will be demolished and another 20 to 30 will be revitalized, he said.

“There’s no doubt that we have a need for it,” Krasienko said. “We’re going to see this area improve just by removal of this nuisance.”

Read more here or view the video below.