H&L Plating & Grinding factory in Munci slated for decontamination and demolition.

Officials are planning to demolish an electroplating factory in central Indiana and clean up soil and water contamination at the site.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management said the H&L Plating & Grinding property in Muncie has chemicals such as hexavalent chromium and arsenic in the soil and ground water.

Agency spokesman Barry Sneed said plans are to have the factory torn down by late November. Work will then begin on clearing out contaminated soil and treating the water.

Read more here.

A North Virginia University is to recreate and demolish the Berlin Wall.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, George Mason University is to build a replica wall to give students – many of whom are too young to remember the fall of the real wall – an opportunity to participate in the construction, decoration and ultimately demolition of the new wall.

George Mason University is one of more than 25 universities to receive a grant to participate in the national Freedom Without Walls campaign. Like other universities participating in the program, Mason will host a range of events, from debates to lectures, art exhibitions (both on campus and at the Goethe Institute), a gala, a unity walk and the building and demolition of a replica of the Berlin Wall.

Read the full story here.

Not getting enough demolition action at work? Then take some home with you.

Anyone that (like us) became addicted to that productivity-sucking and soul-destroying addition that is Demolition City should probably look away now. For while the first two editions of that online game catered to the explosive end of the demolition business, a new game from German developer Astragon puts the player at the controls of a variety of demolition machines.

Spreng- Und Abriss- Sim demo (a catchy title if ever I heard one) is the latest game from the company that brought you Digger Simulator, Forklift Simulator and Dustcart Simulator (no, really). The full game – which puts you at the controls of a crawler crane and wrecking ball combo – carries a 30 Euro price tag, but you can play a free demonstration version complete with excavator and hydraulic hammer.

But before you invest your hard-earned cash, check out the accompanying video, below.

New report from Engineering News Record highlights impact of recession.

Despite the fact that President Obama’s stimulus package money is now startling to trickle down to demolition and other specialist contractors, the latest Top 600 US speciality contractors report from Engineering News Record is tough reading.

For while the headline figures show that the Top 600 companies generated a 13% increase in revenue in 2008 over the previous 12 month period, there are strong and worrying suggestions that this was merely contractors clearing a backlog of work. Against this background, prospects for 2009 look bleak.

Read the full story here.

Elmira City Council set to approve funding to demolish Armory Building.

Plans to take down the Armory building are expected to move ahead next week following action by Elmira City Council.

The council will vote on authorising the demolition at a maximum cost of $1,030,000, issuing $750,000 in bonds to pay part of the cost, hiring Epic Contracting Inc. of nearby Buffalo as the contractor and declaring the project and bonding will have no negative environmental impact.

The Armory, where the majority of city law enforcement personnel had been housed, was vacated following the collapse the facade in March 2006.

Demolition halted on Wyatt Building as property owner’s money runs out.

The Wyatt Building in Esparto, California has forced closure of the main street for the final four months due to worries that the crumbling building could tumble into the street.

The property owner, a non-profit group, found the money to begin demolition several weeks ago. Asbestos has been removed from the building, as well as a partially collapsed section has been removed. The bulk of the building was scheduled to come down on September 11, but the money ran out.

The property owner still needs another $16,000 to reach the $82,000 total for the demolition work, as well as work has been halted indefinitely.

Read more here.

D-Drill required to work around high voltage cables on recent sub-station contract.

Safety was top of the agenda for D-Drill (Master Drillers) Limited when they worked within a live substation in Liverpool recently. Morgan Est appointed the diamond drilling and sawing specialist to remove a high voltage reinforced concrete cable gantry using wire line sawing at height.

The major substation in Kirkby remained online during the 2 day project while the concrete sections were cut and removed from a height of 10 metres. “Due to the weight and location of the gantry it was not possible to use high reach crunching excavators as this would have posed a risk to adjacent transformers and local electrical apparatus,” says North West Area Manager, Neil Wood. “D-Drill was appointed because of its ability to provide a highly controlled wire sawing operation, at height, with fully trained BESC operatives. The positioning also meant that all equipment and the concrete waste had to be transported through live sections of the works.”

Three men injured during demolition of Michigan grain silo.

Two men were injured Thursday morning while tearing down and replacing some old silos/grain elevators in Lake Odessa. Three companies, including a demolition crew and a reconstruction crew, were on the property in the 1000 block of 3rd Avenue when the incident occurred at around 9:30 a.m.

One of the contractors, 37-year-old Jason Radke of Plainwell, was in a crane basket 120 feet in the air when the crane collapsed. He landed in a pile of rubble, then was trapped and had to be rescued by emergency personnel, who extricated him. He was airlifted to a hospital where he is in critical condition.

Click here for further details or watch the Wood TV8 video below:

Tower block fire risk could lead to boom for demolition contractors.

One hundred social-housing tower blocks in London face even worse fire risks than Lakanal House in Camberwell, where six people died in July, according to the BBC.

It claims that councils have failed to fire check at least 253 social housing high-rise buildings – which is a criminal offence.

A BBC London team found that while Lakanal House had been given a medium-risk rating on a scale used by councils, thousands of residents live in accommodation condemned as high risk.

Click here for further details.

New video highlights the dismantling of a Komatsu 1250 excavator at the WTC site.

After almost 2 years of excavating soil, shearing steel and hammering concrete Testa Corp’s Komatsu 1250 finally leaves the World Trade Center Construction Site in New York City. And all the action has been captured by videographer Stephen SetteDucatti.

Cranes, Inc. Liebherr 130 ton capacity 885 Crawler crane performs the lifting duties from a stationary deck on the edge of the pit. Lead by a Master Mechanic and Master Rigger this crew of 8 disassembles the 1250 6 stories below street level. Top side a small army of trucks and personnel retrieves each piece, loads them onto waiting trucks and readies them for transport to the next demolition site.