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.

With green shoots of recovery now visible, demolition-jobs.co.uk could be worth a visit.

As many of you will recall, Demolition-Jobs was established as a joint venture between Demolition News and the National Federation of Demolition Contractors to stave off the crippling effects of the current recession on this industry’s unemployment levels.

Well with the first green shoots of recovery now starting to poke through the dark sol of the credit crunch, there has never been a better time to visit the site and take a look around. If you’re a demolition worker who has found himself unemployed and are now seeking re-employment, or if you’re a contractor looking to swell your ranks to meet the upturn in demand, please visit www.demolition-jobs.co.uk.

Demolition companies could benefit from strategic alliances with like-minded professionals.

In recent months, I have sat through more than my fair share of seminars, conferences and conventions with US, UK and European demolition contractors. And while the content of each of these events has been markedly different, there has been one common thread: the desire for global information sharing.

The US’ National Demolition Association (NDA) was keen to host a worldwide waste symposium involving the European Demolition Association this year, although the credit crunch brought those plans to a temporary but shuddering halt. At the same time, the NDA has announced that it is to adopt the UK’s guidance notes on the safe use of high reach demolition excavators and track-mounted mobile crushers. Meanwhile, the Institute of Demolition Engineers is slowly gaining a foothold outside its native UK in destinations as far afield as the US and Australia.

However, any such developments move with all the speed or wind erosion and the direction of Continental drift. And in a fast-paced business like demolition, particularly at a time when informed decisions could be the difference between survival and failure, is this well-intentioned but overly-structured information sharing responsive enough for the industry’s needs?

Given that demolition is an almost universal language (even though, perhaps, the accent varies from region to region), would we not be better off with a kind of global “buddying system” where individual contractors or even individual people shared their knowledge and experience.

Want an example? How’s this.

With a stated aim of a 50% recycling rate, the US is quite clearly (and for many notable reasons) lagging behind its UK where rates of 95% are the norm and 99% is not unusual. It is my firm belief that a US contractor could learn more about the fundamentals of processing and recycling of construction and demolition waste from a single visit to a UK contractor like Coleman or Syd Bishop than they could from countless seminars and PowerPoint presentations.

The UK also boasts some of the world’s best demolition safety and occupational health standards. Any contractor from outside the UK wishing to replicate these standards COULD attend conferences and read manuals or they could simply make contact with consultancies like C&D Consultancy or Building Health. It might not be practical or financially viable for either of these companies to hop over the English Channel or the Atlantic for a half-day meeting, but a phone conversation and a few emails could make a world of difference to your company’s safety and occupational health efforts.

And here’s the thing. Much of this could be achieved at virtually no cost whatsoever. Full details of all the NFDC, EDA and NDA members are available on the respective organisations’ websites, generally with direct links to the individual companies’ websites. Email, Skype and instant messaging is all but free. And modern video-conferencing software would allow Transatlantic meetings and training sessions to take place without the jet-lag, deep vein thrombosis, airline food and hefty carbon footprint normally associated with international travel.

So don’t wait until you’re faced with an unforeseen technical issue or a form of demolition you haven’t encountered before. And don’t wait for that next Convention which could be 12 months away. Check out the EDA, IDE, NDA and NFDC websites, and find yourself a demolition buddy!

Our first Demolition Digest guest blog for Construction Equipment has just gone live.

We reported last week that we had been granted the opportunity to write a guest column for Construction Equipment, the US-based website of the world’s largest construction magazine. Well, just a few days on and our first offering has just gone live.

Please check it out here and let us (them) have your comments.

Great video on decommissioning process at Douneray nuclear facility in Scotland.

The plutonium criticality laboratory at Dounreay was once considered too contaminated to ever be demolished. Watch how a team of decommissioning experts cleaned it up and knocked it down.

This video is notable only for the fact that it was shot in the town of Sleepy Eye!

A new t-shirt is the perfect compromise between job-site safe and office smart.

You know how it is. You’re not going to be meeting a client or attend any formal meetings, so the business suit can stay at home. And you’re not going to be spending too much time on site so the high visibility and protective workwear doesn’t really hit the mark either. So what does the well-dressed, off-duty demolition man wear?

Well, here at Demolition News, we’re eagerly awaiting delivery of a new “Demo Boys” t-shirt. Available in both long and short sleeve versions (priced at $25 and $20 respectively, excluding shipping), these 100% cotton t-shirts are available in small. medium, large and extra large sizes, all bearing the cool-looking Demo Boys logo.

To find out more, just drop an email to demoboys.mke@gmail.com marked for the attention of Jonathan and he’ll do the rest.

We’re sincerely hoping that, despite the imminent onset of Autumn, we will get an opportunity to pair the new Demo Boys t-shirt with our workwear kilt!

Demolition contract for pre-casino works awarded without public bidding.

At a time when US demolition contract bidding practices and pricing are under close scrutiny, one city has taken the bold step of bypassing the process altogether, awarding a contract without even going to open tender.

Baltimore officials awarded a demolition contract at the site of a proposed slots casino without public bidding, drawing concern from the city comptroller and the head of a contracting association.

Rather than advertise the work as required for most city projects, the Baltimore Development Corp., the city’s development arm, approached a handful of demolition firms and asked them to provide prices to knock down the Maryland Chemical building.

Read the full story here.