There’s probably a story to this; but we have no idea what it is!

Every once in a while, we receive a photograph that is entirely self-explanatory, requiring no words from us. That’s not the case here. We have absolutely no idea quite why there’s an old lady at the controls of a John F. Hunt excavator or what part she’s about to play in this London demolition project.

So if readers are able to shed any light on the subject (or offer a suitably humorous caption) we’d love to hear from you.

Recent spate of failed implosions raises uncomfortable questions.

To the general public, implosions are the public face of the demolition industry. Although they account for an increasingly small and specialized part of the global demolition workload, the glitz, glamour and razzmatazz that a high-profile blow-down can deliver is unmatched anywhere else in the demolition sector. And if you’re questioning the public fascination with all things explosive, try searching for the term implosion on YouTube!

And here at Demolition News we’re just as guilty – Implosions are a subject that we find equally fascinating. In fact, we have covered literally dozens in the past six months or so in locations from the UK to Brazil, Germany to Canada, Turkey to the US.

But looking back, there has been an alarming number of recent examples of the blaster’s worse nightmare; the stand-up (a name coined because the structure stays vertical, not because it is in any way comedic).
Taken in isolation, most appear to have their own perfectly plausible excuse for failing to fall under the blaster’s spell. However, taken as a representative sample of the blasting sector as a whole, this spate of stand-ups represents a worrying trend; one that could so easily undermine public and client confidence in explosive demolition methods.

Now there is absolutely no suggestion that these recent stand-ups are in any way related; they have occurred on three different continents and no single company – supplier or contractor – has (to the best of our knowledge) been implicated in more than one such incident.

It would be easy, therefore, to lump all these contracts together and file them away in a drawer marked “coincidence” and then keep our collective industry fingers crossed when the next high-profile implosion rolls around.

But is there something more sinister going on here? Could it be that the current credit crunch is having an unseen yet damaging effect upon the credibility of the blasting sector? At a time when all demolition professionals are working on margins narrow enough to pass through the eye of a needle, are some blasters cutting back on expensive explosives and detonation cord to squeeze a few more bucks out of each job?
Faced with a tower block of, say, 20 storeys in height, a professional and security-minded blaster will typically rig several floors and use a primary and a secondary (failsafe) circuit to ensure that each detonator is hit at least once to ensure a complete and thorough blast.

Removing a few floors’ worth of charges in the hope of gravitational intervention and replacing the det’ cord that makes up the secondary circuit with crossed fingers might save the blasting company tens of thousands of dollars.

Demolition contractors have risked asbestos and waste disposal-related prosecutions for less over the years. Unlike a stand-up show with Peter Kay, the situation is no laughing matter.

Calculating the height of a building has always been notoriously difficult. Until now.

Short of reaching for an extremely long tape measure, it’s always been incredibly difficult to calculate the true height of a building. But not any longer.

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has developed a tall building height calculator to assist in determining tall building heights when only the storey count is known. The calculator is divided into three categories representing the three major functions represented in tall buildings;

(i) Office
(ii) Residential/Hotel
(iii) Mixed-use or when the function unknown

The calculator will provide an approximate height for a single tall building, but as tall building characteristics vary significantly with location, structural material, form, profile, etc, in some instances estimates will vary considerably with actual building height. As such, the calculator is best utilised to determine heights in multiple building / statistical studies, where there are many unknown building heights. In these instances the greater number of buildings examined will reduce any overall variations.

Click here for more details.

Implosion of faulty Ocean Tower structure presents CDI with unique challenges.

The specific date in December for the implosion of the faulty, 114 metre tall condominium tower on South Padre Island in Texas has not been set. But the demolition contractor says it has solved almost all the quandaries of one of its most challenging explosive demolitions.

The preexisting structural damage means loads are not being transferred through the remaining structure in a “fully predictable, much less programmable fashion,” says J. Mark Loizeaux, president of Phoenix, Md.-based CDI. That means more caution during prep work.

CDI has never encountered such a heavily reinforced building. “We have never had to preblast openings in walls of a building we were going to implode,” says Loizeaux.

Read more here.

Demolition work set to start at Evansville Executive Inn on 1 December.

The demolition contractor, Tim Klenck, now has the permit to take down the Executive Inn in Evansville, but that doesn’t mean the building will come down right away. It’s expected structural demolition won’t begin until 1 December.

Click here to view the video news report.

Vermont’s Crown Point bridge earmarked for demolition before ice forms.

The historic, graceful arches of the Crown Point Bridge could disappear from the landscape before ice forms on Lake Champlain. Engineers are concerned that the bridge in such bad shape that it could topple into the water if there’s harsh weather.

For 80 years, the bridge has spanned the Lake Champlain narrows between New York’s Crown Point and Vermont’s Chimney Point. But the concrete piers that support the half-mile of steel trusses have weakened so much that Vermont and New York ordered the bridge closed – and demolished.

John Zicconi of the Vermont Transportation Agency says the bridge really needs to come down soon.

Read more here.

Cumbrian flood damage likely to claim another bridge report claims.

Cumbria County Council’s Andrew Butler says it is “too early to say” what will happen to one of the most badly damaged bridges in Cumbria, Calva Bridge in Workington.

Hundreds of bridges in the county are being carefully assessed for damage caused by the floods of the past week.

Mr Butler said he thought the damage put Calva Bridge “beyond repair”, but options for re-connecting both sides of the river were being examined.

Click here to view the BBC video report.

Demolition operative trapped as garage collapses in New York.

Demolition crews working to dismantle a garage in Hamburg had a corner jack give-way, causing the structure to collapse and trapping a worker inside.

The victim was initially unconscious, however rescuers were able to revive him at the scene.

More here.

Edinburgh City Council to fast-track demolition of troubled Fort House estate.

Dozens of council tenants living in one of the most deprived housing estates in Edinburgh are set to be rehoused – into brand-new homes at the capital’s flagship waterfront development. A deal between a housing association and the city council – which is to demolish the Fort House estate, in Leith – will see families begin relocating to the multi-million-pound Western Harbour development within weeks.

More than 150 flats on the troubled estate, which was built in the 1960s on the site of an 18th-century fort, are due for demolition within the next three years. But existing tenants are expected to be offered the chance to move to a £14million development taking shape near Newhaven Harbour, Ocean Terminal and the Royal Yacht Britannia.

The council has agreed to a fast-track demolition of Fort House after striking a deal with an affordable housing builder to rehouse most of the tenants currently living there, with the majority expected to be offered the chance of Western Harbour.

Read more here.

National Demolition Association unveils members-only section of website.

Directories of state licensing data and local C&D waste processors are among the business tools now available on the National Demolition Association’s ‘Members Only’ section of its website www.demolitionassociation.com. Members can also share scores of industry documents relating to the demolition process as a member benefit.

Read the full story here.