Baltimore Development Corp terminates demolition contract awarded controversially.

Baltimore Development Corp BDC) has terminated a $1.5 million demolition contract that was to clear the way for a $112 million downtown redevelopment project called CityScape.

BDC President M.J. “Jay” Brodie said his agency awarded the demolition contract to Berg Corp. under a controversial policy it has decided to abandon. Instead of demolishing the properties, the city will sell the land to CityScape’s developers as is, with its buildings intact.

Read the ongoing story here.

Demolition in Amsterdam, New York prioritised following collapse of neglected building.

Last winter, the city of Amsterdam in Montgomery County, New York began a collaboration with the County’s demolition/asbestos abatement team and razed seven of the over 50 city-owned properties that were placed on the demolition list.

But, following an unscheduled collapse yesterday of a building that had been slated for demolition, city officials were forced to give the programme greater focus, as The Recorder reports.

Fast and cheap or slow and expensive? Yellowstone, you decide.

Yellowstone County Commissioners opened bids last week to demolish the DHL building on the space that will soon provide parking for Yellowstone County employees. The bids were surprising (though possibly not to regular readers of Demolition News) in their range from a high of $129,501 to a low of $39,748.

According to the Laurel Outlook article, the low bid was submitted by H. L. Ostermiller Construction, who committed to having the project demolition completed in 30 days. The high bid was received from C & S Construction, Billings, who committed to a 60-day completion date. Other bids were from Winkler Contractors, Roundup, for $57,495, 30 days; and Matriarch Construction, Laurel, $91,450, 45 days.

Now can I ask an idiot question here?

If speedy completion of a demolition project is a factor, more manpower and machinery is normally employed to get that job done more quickly, all of which costs money, right? So how is the lowest bid also the one with the shortest proposed contract duration?

Answers on a postcard (or in the comments area below) please.

Grant McKay Demolition uses Link Belt high reach on paper mill demolition.

Utah-based Grant McKay Demolition has used a 34 metre reach Link Belt LX 700 UHD excavator equipped with an Atlas Copco CC 3300 combi cutter attachment to tackle the demolition of a former paper mill in the Houston suburb of Sheldon, the company’s first foray into the state of Texas.

According to this Equipment Today report, the project involved the demolition of a bulding that covered an area of some 150,000 square metres, together with the deconstruction of a 30 metre high power plant.

Read the full story and see more photos here.

Grant funding will allow Dayton, Ohio to complete project started almost a decade ago.

A Dayton Daily News report says that a $589,438 Clean Ohio Grant will enable the city to finish demolition work on the former NIBCO foundry on McCall Street, a project started nearly a decade ago.

The city bought the property in 2000. Demolition of above-ground structures on the 12-acre site took place in 2004, followed by an environment assessment in 2005. The foundation demolition and soil clean-up should be complete by spring 2010, making the land development ready.

Read the full story here.

Baltimore reacts to “no-bid” furore with public bid order.

Having seen her city let a recent contract for a demolition contract prior to the construction of a casino without going through the usual public bidding process, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon has ordered the city’s quasi-public development agency to award demolition contracts through public bidding.

The move follows an acknowledgment by the Baltimore Development Corporation that it gave out a no-bid contract for the demolition of a building at the site of Baltimore’s future casino.

Full story here.

Workwear takes a feminine but nonetheless welcome turn for the better.

As regular readers are aware, we at Demolition News are noted for our sartorial elegance; and we’re not above sharing our fashion advice with you.

First we modeled a new workwear kilt, putting it through its paces during the Glastonbury 2009 festival. More recently, we recommended the new range of Demo Boys t-shirts as the winter season’s next big thing.

But even we have drawn the line with this latest item of workwear.

Now don’t get us wrong. We’re more than happy to see women in the demolition arena. And let’s face it, a corset does have a certain appeal. But when it’s accessorized with green hair and a lump hammer, it just looks, well, scary.

It is our prediction that the workwear kilt will catch on way sooner than the workwear corset. What do you think?

(Our thanks to the guys at Active Workwear for bringing this item to our attention, although what they were doing on a corset website, frankly, is anyone’s guess).

The shortlist for the first Demolition Awards has been announced, and it’s VERY British.

When KHL, publisher of D&Ri, announced that it was to host the first-ever Demolition Awards (and Demolition Summit) we welcomed the announcement, and have followed the awards as they have developed.

But following what was reportedly an intense judging panel in Amsterdam yesterday, the awards shortlist has been announced. And three months before the final winners are announced, we’re already wondering if the awards are truly representative.

Take for example the Demolition Company of the Year category where the shortlist has been whittled down to six companies, and where each of the finalists is from the British Isles. The Demolition Contract of the Year shortlist features just one (US) company from outside Europe, while the Demolition Training award shortlist is again an all British affair.

Now don’t get me wrong. I have the utmost respect for Lindsay Gale and the rest of the D&Ri team. I also know several of the judging panel and I have no doubt that they were anything less than 100% scrupulous and fair in their decision making.

But the UK demolition business comprises just a few hundred companies, while the US has several thousand (including some of the biggest in the world), and yet the Americans seem grossly under-represented. And where, for that matter, are the highly professional Germans and the innovative Japanese.

Maybe it’s just a quirk of the entry process; maybe this first-ever awards has yet to capture the imagination of the wider demolition world; and maybe it merely mirrors the regions of the world where D&Ri is most widely read or where the awards have been most strongly promoted.

But, whatever the reason, when the results are eventually announced at the Demolition Summit in Amsterdam on 6 November, the winners enclosure is set to look like a National Federation of Demolition Contractors meeting with a few special guests!

There’s even more industry news to be found via our Twitter feed.

This is just a very quick reminder that, in addition to this website, Demolition News also has a lively presence on the social networking site Twitter.

In fact, in addition to carrying links to the content that you would normally find here, our Twitter feed carries news and information that we either don’t have room for here, or which we’ve been unable to research fully.

So if you’re conversant with the Twitter phenomenon, please be sure to follow us at twitter.com/demolitionnews. And if you’re not yet a Twitter user (user being the operative word; it’s addictive) then check out this previous blog post which will tell you what you’re missing.