Spanish demolition worker killed and another injured in house collapse.

A 31-year-old man has died and a 23 year old has been injured when the house they were demolishing collapsed. The accident happened in Algemesí, a town of approximately 35,000 inhabitants in the Ribera Alta region of Valencia.

Sources from the emergency services say that the old town house at the junction between Calle Santiago Apóstol and Calle Mosén Cursá in the centre of the town collapsed at 5.20pm yesterday.

Full story here.

Contractual fiasco sets worrying precedent for UK demolition industry.

According to my trusty Oxford English Dictionary, a contract is defined as “a written or spoken agreement between two parties, intended to be enforceable by law”.

Why am I telling you this? Well, apparently, this meaning of the word contract is either not understood in Staffordshire or Stoke City Council considers itself exempt. For having let the contract to demolish the former Westcliffe Hospital to Brown & Mason, the council then found itself the subject of a BBC investigation over alleged irregularities in the way in which contracts were being let. And so, despite the fact that there was no evidence suggesting that Brown & Mason had done anything wrong, their contract was terminated and the entire contract will be re-tendered.

Not surprisingly, Brown & Mason MD Terry Brown is far from pleased. Setting aside the work that his tender team will have put into compiling the initial bid AND the fact that preparatory works had already begun, Brown & Mason is now effectively excluded from being able to retender. Every major UK demolition contractor worth their salt now know the bid price submitted by Brown & Mason so they’re there to be undercut. And if Brown & Mason were to re-tender at a lower price than previously agreed, they would be perceived as having been dishonest in the first place.

No-one, least of all Brown & Mason, disputes the fact that the company’s bid price was not the lowest; but that’s largely irrelevant.

For one thing, it is always possible to buy cheaper as there is always Fred and Bill down the road who share a sledge hammer and a brain cell, who once saw a demolition documentary on the Discovery Channel, and who will carry out any contract for the price of a full English breakfast and a tank of diesel per day.

In addition, Brown & Mason is a premier league contractor; just ask anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of the UK demolition sector. You don’t get to demolish power stations unless you know what you’re doing.

What is important here is the precedent set by Stoke City Council’s very public reneging on a contract.

Where will this end? If you sign an agreement to buy a new Caterpillar excavator for £250,000 and you use it for a few weeks only to discover that Volvo could supply a similar machine for £240,000, could you just park up the Cat outside your local dealer and make a phone call to Sweden to arrange delivery of a cheaper replacement?

And, given that we’re now in the run-up to the festive season, can we all flock to the January sales, hand back the slightly used gifts for which we paid top-dollar pre-Christmas and then buy them back at knock-down prices in the New Year?

I for one sincerely hope that Brown & Mason’s legal team play merry hell with this case: not just for themselves; but for the UK demolition industry as a whole.

UK contractor expresses anger as agreed contract is sent for re-tender.

Brown & Mason has reacted angrily as the contract it had won to demolish the former Westcliffe Hospital in Staffordshire is to be re-tendered following an ongoing internal investigation into how council contracts are awarded.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council officers are recommending the authority asks for new bids after it emerged lower tenders were overlooked.

The report to the cabinet recommends that the deal to flatten Westcliffe is retendered after a quote of just over £309,000 was dismissed. London-based contractor Brown & Mason had been identified as the preferred bidder out of seven short-listed firms, despite quoting a price of £1.1 million, which was three times higher than that of a rival.

But Terry Brown, managing director of Brown and Mason, said his firm would not reapply.

He said: “We won’t be bidding again. How can we? We have spent a lot of time pricing up the job and now everybody in the country knows our price. I was assured on the phone dozens of times that the work was ours. We started working on it last Christmas – I have wasted a year on this job. The council should stick to their own rules.”

Read more here.

One man’s trash is another man’s masterpiece, according to Lawrence Straughn.

“Somebody threw it away. I’m gonna make it into something,” he said. “I’m recycling.”

Read more here.

Irving City council sets up implosion watch webcam at Texas Stadium.

Its implosion is still a few weeks away but fans of the iconic Texas Stadium can catch a final glimpse online following Irving City council’s installation of an “implosion watch” webcam.

Admittedly, there’s very little going on there right now – In fact, when we last looked, the stadium was shrouded in darkness with just a few cars driving by. But it will certainly be worthy of a visit on implosion day.

Click here to check out the live webcam.

“I just climbed it; it must be safe” says Australian sit-in protestor.

A sit-in has begun atop the 47 metre high heritage-listed Jimna fire tower in an effort to stop the Government demolishing the landmark structure.

Jimna Fire Tower Action Group spokesman Dave Wright climbed the tower – between Nanango and Maroochydore – on Monday and said he would stay there as long as it took for the Government to promise to save the structure.

The Primary Industries forestry department sought to demolish the tower in 2006 to save on costs.
After protests from Mr Wright’s group, the department proposed the following year to do repairs before handing the tower to the Kilcoy Shire Council. It rejected the offer because of concerns about upkeep.

Mr Wright said he hoped his sit-in would prove as untrue as the Government’s claim the tower was unsafe.

“This is a total fabrication. I’ve just climbed it and it’s fine,” he said. “I’ll stay up here as long as it takes … the Government to acknowledge its heritage obligations.”

Read more here.

CDI claims world record for Leaning Tower implosion. But do the maths stack up?

The demolition industry is blessed with more than its fair share of giant egos and it seems that rarely a month goes by when someone isn’t claiming their latest contract is the biggest, tallest, widest or loudest on record.

So when we saw news reports claiming that the implosion of the South Padre Island’s “leaning Tower” this past weekend claiming that it had set a new world record for the tallest reinforced concrete structure ever imploded, we were willing to just let it slide and leave the people at Guinness to do the math. However, when we we looking ahead to the forthcoming implosion of the 1515 building in West Palm Beach, something just didn’t stack up.

Before CDI pressed the button, the Leaning Tower stood 31 storeys tall and apparently measured 378 feet (115.21 metres). Meanwhile, the soon-to-be-shot 1515 condo building in West Palm Beach stands at 30 storeys and yet measures just 312.28 feet (95.18 metres).

So the South Padre tower was one storey and a full 66 feet taller than the 1515 condo? Really? Even though it had been sinking from the time it was built?

I realise that storeys vary in height and it’s just possible that these figures are totally legitimate.

But with world records and, more importantly, giant egos at stake, are we all absolutely certain that all demolition companies are using the same units of measurement?

New video preview of National Geographic Demolition Dynasty TV series.

We can’t find a version of this with an English language voice-over, but the footage, featuring CDI among others, is no less impressive.

Gateshead’s iconic “Get Carter” car park to remain standing….for now.

“You’re a big man but you’re in bad shape. With me, it’s a full time job. Now behave yourself.” Those immortal lines were spoken by Michael Caine’s Jack Carter character in the original 1971 movie “Get Carter” shortly before throwing that same big man over the edge of a multi-storey car park in the centre of Gateshead.

Nearly forty years later, that car park stands largely alone as the 1960s Trinity Square Shopping Centre of which it was a part is slowly demolished to make way for a new Tesco superstore. And it looks as though that iconic car park may stand for some time to come, or at least until Tesco’s plans for the town centre are satisfactory, council bosses have said.

Demolition of the surrounding development started about a year ago; and Tesco says it is making good progress on the plans, which currently include a new supermarket, bars and restaurants.

Negotiations between Gateshead Council and the firm have been going on since the Trinity Square revamp was announced in 2007. However, questions have been raised about the length of time it is taking for demolition to begin at the car park.

Read more here.

Condominium owner faces $1,000/day fine if demolition runs late.

Implode 1515 S. Flagler by 28 February or face a $1,000 per day fine. That’s what the West Palm Beach city commission decided tonight after Trinity Development Group LLC asked for another extension in taking down the 30-story, hurricane ravished eyesore that’s been vacant for five years.

Neighbors pleaded with the city to not grant Trinity an extension through May 30. In the end, the sides compromised. Trinity will have until May 30 to complete the entire project, which includes debris cleanup, but must implode the building by February 28. Otherwise, the fines will kick in.

Read more here.