German company Mende Schornsteinbau demonstrates a modern take on chimney demolition.
Faced with a giant chimney, most demolition contractors would be checking their explosives insurance and erecting the sandbags, ready for the big bang. Not Mende Schornsteinbau GmbH. The German specialist demonstrated that these jobs can be handled with the same delicacy and precision as any other demolition project.
The EDA Conference in Nice provided an opportunity for Dehaco to unveil some innovative products.
With the likes of New Holland, JCB, Case, Caterpillar Liebherr and Komatsu in attendance, the focus of the European Demolition Association conference in Nice could have been all about high reach excavators and other large machines.
But a video from Dutch manufacturer Dehaco set tongues wagging with some highly innovative products. The company has very kindly allowed us to reproduce that video here, together with our new pre-roll advertisement from sponsor Pirtek:
General Demolition celebrates gold to the power of three.
Gold Award 1
General Demolition is celebrating winning one of the prestigious RoSPA (The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) Occupational Health and Safety Awards 2009.
The RoSPA awards ensure that organisations have good health and safety systems in place, thus reducing the number of accidents and cases of ill health at work. David Rawlins, RoSPA awards manager said:”General Demolition Limited has shown a commitment to protecting the health and well being of its employees and others. Entering the RoSPA awards reinforces the message that good health & safety is good for business, and clearly demonstrates an organisation’s dedication to improving performance in this crucial area”
Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive of the General Group comments: “We are delighted to have won the gold award from RoSPA. The well being of our employees is paramount, and it is an honour to be recognised for our long-term commitment in this crucial area of our business.”
Gold Awards 2
The City of London’s Considerate Contractor Scheme Judging Panel has named General Demolition as a Gold Award recipient for its overall performance at 1 Tudor Street, the former north wing of Unilever House close to Blackfriars Bridge in London, the company’s second Gold Award in three years.
“We are extremely proud to have won another Gold Award,” said General Demolition’s senior projects manager Tom Henry who led the site team. “The award recognises that we consistently exceeded the requirements of the City of London’s
Code of Good Practice, carrying out our operations in a safe and considerate manner. It also reflects a spirit of pride in our work, an awareness of the passing public and due regard for the surrounding environment,” added Tom.
Gold Sponsor
For the seventh consecutive year General Demolition will be a Gold sponsor at this years Little Britain Challenge Cup. Colin McLoughlin, Chairman of the General Group comments:”As well as being enormous fun, Little Britain has become a key event on the networking calendar and I am thrilled to be a long term sponsor.”
No-cost solution facilitates decommissioning of pipe plant.
A major project to decommission one of Europe’s largest former pipe manufacturing plants is being carried out at no cost to its owner, thanks to specialist project managers and construction design management (CDM) co-ordinators RVA Group.
Cast iron technology leader Saint-Gobain PAM UK had initially thought that the cost to deplant and demolish the former Central Melting Plant (CMP) and adjacent Hallam Plant at Stanton-by-Dale, Ilkeston – which ceased production in 2006 – would be excessive and prohibitive. But after appointing RVA, Saint-Gobain is now assured that the project will not only be self-funding, it stands to generate a positive return.
At the end of 2008 the mothballed heavy industrial plants posed a number of ongoing security and safety issues for Saint-Gobain. Saint-Gobain PAM UK finance director Nick Cammack said: “We knew we needed to address the issue, but given the current economic climate, the timing wasn’t ideal. Initially we were looking to dismantle elements of the plant for scrap whilst mothballing the remainder of the buildings, believing this would be the safest and most cost effective option.
“But we brought in RVA to conduct a series of feasibility studies that would investigate and cost the different solutions available to us. The team came back to us with a number of innovative opportunities, one of which had the potential to be cash generative.”
RVA’s in-depth evaluation provided a new perspective and it soon became apparent that the safest and most financially gainful solution was complete clearance of the site, which would generate sufficient funds from scrap materials to cover the cost of the project.
RVA was so confident that the project would, as a minimum, fund itself that it was willing to put a proportion of its fee at risk, should projected targets not be met.
The team of specialist consulting engineers then carefully devised a best value contractor works specification, and played an integral part in appointing demolition firm Brown & Mason to begin the nine-month decommissioning contract at the end of May.
Nick continued: “We’d had positive experiences working with RVA in the past, including on a 38-week project at Staveley Works which was executed to a fantastic standard. We knew they could be relied upon, so we didn’t even approach anyone else. If, in this case, it was proved the project couldn’t fund itself, we wouldn’t have decided to go ahead. We couldn’t afford to embark upon an expensive decommissioning venture, but RVA’s independent, impartial guidance and thorough insight has been invaluable to us. It’s our belief that no other company is comparable to RVA in their field.”
RVA managing director Richard Vann said: “The deep recession is causing many companies to think very carefully before embarking on what may be seen as non-essential spend. This often results in the postponing of important dismantling and decommissioning projects as they are simply deemed unaffordable, albeit they will have to be tackled at a later date and in most cases at an increased cost.
“We recognise that not all projects can be cash positive or even cost neutral. However, by bringing in specialists like ourselves with the expertise to investigate different options, companies can make informed decisions and demonstrably save money in the long run.
“Our knowledge of surplus capacity in the competent supply chain, combined with carefully specifying the work scope for example– stripping out all non-essential elements from the contractor’s brief without comprising safety or quality – can ensure robust and cost-effective solutions are devised. Consequently, direct liabilities such as hazardous material containment, security and maintenance costs, as well as unavoidable overheads such as local authority building rates, are removed.”
Demolition News will not be adding updates between 4 and 7 June 2009.
On 4 June, the Demolition News team will be heading for sunny (we hope) Nice in France to bring you all the latest news, views and comments from the latest European Demolition Association conference. As a result, this site will NOT be updated between 4 and 7 June.
However, we WILL be bringing you comment and reaction LIVE via Twitter (the brief messages located just below the Twitter logo to the left of this page) including audio feedback from delegates and presenters.
Furthermore, we will be bringing you in depth video and audio content fromthe conference immediately afterwards; it won’t be quite the same as being on the French Riviera with us, but we’ll try to make it as close as possible.
A crawler crane and wrecking ball are currently taking out the Terrace Office Center.
The final building left standing in the way of the construction of the $140 million University House project in Orange County has started to fall.
The rebar-and-cement Terrace Office Center building was built in the late 1960s, so it is perhaps fitting that it should be brought down by a crawler crane and wrecking ball.
Alan Jones of Brown & Mason has won the Demolition News photo competition.
Back in the middle of April, we launched our latest competition; to find the best demolition photograph from among our many readers, subscribers and now listeners. And we weren’t disappointed. In fact, we were inundated by photos from demolition sites across the globe, including a good few from equipment manufacturers who assured us they had no interest in winning a model of the Komatsu PC450 high reach excavator.
However, after much analysis and discussion, we have finally decided that Alan Jones of UK demolition contractor Brown & Mason was a deserving winner for both the quality AND the quantity of photos he submitted.
A couple of examples of Alan’s handiwork are shown here, while his 1:50 scale model prize will be winging its way to hi shortly. Congratulations Alan.
A pair of photos sent to Demolition News highlight the benefits and pitfalls of Photoshop.
I am sure we’re all aware of the ability of the Photoshop software program to manipulate photos. If the tabloid media is to be believed, many of the supermodels that grace the cover Vogue are, in fact, spotty-faced individuals with wrinkles and cellulite. But thanks to the wizardry of Photoshop, they look utterly flawless. According to one industry insider, a certain un-named equipment has long since eschewed muddy demolition and construction sites for its brochure photography, preferring instead to photograph its equipment in a studio environment and adding the nasty mud later using Photoshop.
Used properly, Photoshop undoubtedly has the ability to accentuate, to make a good photo a truly great photo, as the shot above clearly illustrates.
However, in the wrong hands, it can make a perfectly ordinary and workmanlike photo appear to be the work of a seven year old child with a pot of glue and some scissors. Artistic types beware!
The up and coming Taekwon Do star sponsored by Demolition News has won gold.
Regular readers of Demolition News will recall that a few months ago we made an appeal to help sponsor Leanne Evans, a rising Taekwon Do star and a possible contender for the London 2012 Olympics.
Well, the response was overwhelming with the likes of AR Demolition, C&D Consultancy, Demolition News and Erith Group backing Leanne in her bid for glory in the European Championships that has been taking place in Croatia this week.
And we’re delighted they did. We have just received a phone call live from the stadium to say that Leanne has secured gold in the three categories in which she competes; and, better still, that she has been crowned European Champion.
Below is an extract from Leanne’s letter of thanks received just before she headed for Croatia:
I would like to take this opportunity to formally thank you all for your generous donations. The chance to compete at the European Championships is only something which I could have once only dreamed of.
I had never expected that competing at an international level would open so many doors for me; I am now increasing my levels of training in preparation for the competition which has allowed me to improve enormously. I have done various martial-arts since the age of four and have a real love and passion for the sport. I have always competed in national competitions, but thanks to your contributions I feel that I can really reach my full potential by competing abroad.
Demolition News discusses the impact of Hand Arm and Whole Body vibration.
Whole Body and Hand Arm vibration are a constant cause for concern on demolition sites across the globe. Indeed, the Health and Safety Executive’s decision to prohibit operators from being on board mobile crushers while they’re in operation, and the NFDC’s subsequent guidance notes which echoed this line, was prompted as much by concerns over vibration as it was by concerns over more obvious hazards such as operatives falling into the crushing chamber.
In this exclusive Demolition Podcast Network broadcast, we spoke to Huw Kellet, head of occupational hygiene at Riverside Environmental Services and an expert in the field of Hand Arm and Whole Body Vibration.
Click the blue link (below) to listen to the podcast.
Alternatively, please visit iTunes to download this and our numerous other podcasts direct to your iPod, iPod Touch or iPhone device.
