Cat CEO Jim Owens has welcomed the stimulus package announced by Barak Obama: http://tinyurl.com/c5j6ld

Ship dismantling team face strict regulation to control ghost ship project

The Environment Agency has announced rigorous regulatory controls to ensure that the French naval ship Q790 (formerly Le Clemenceau) is “dismantled and recycled in a safe and environmentally sound manner”.

As we reported, earlier this week the Q790 arrived from Brest in France and joined the four US “ghost ships” at Able UK’s ship dismantling facility at Graythorp, Hartlepool, waiting to be processed.

Read the full story here.

Demolition News brings you two video exclusives from the recent NDTG annual general meeting.

The Annual General Meeting of the UK’s National Demolition Traning Group took place in London’s Docklands recently; and Demolition News’ cameras were on hand to capture all the major talking points.

In this first video, NDTG chairman David Clarke provides a review of the group’s activities during the year:

In this second video, David Clarke and Howard Button provide an update on the group’s negotiations with CPCS:

The story of a demolition project in time-lapse format.

A few days ago, we said that there would be no more time-lapse videos appearing here; that they had become tired and old-fashioned; and that they would never again darken these hallowed pages.

And then we saw this one.

It was shot back in the Summer of 2008 but the quality, coupled with the fact that it tells the story of a demolition from beginning to end, meant that we just had to break our rules. Enjoy!

http://vimeo.com/2673719

Earthmovers magazine offers useful insight into remote controlled demolition techniques

Just came across this interesting article on the subject of remote controlled demolition.

The article was originally published int he February edition of the UK trade magazine, Earthmovers.

Economic downturn hits profits at US’ largest waste management company.

Waste Management Inc, North America’s largest trash hauler, said fourth-quarter profit fell 29 percent because of a drop in U.S. construction and lower prices for recycled materials.

Net income declined to $218 million, or 44 cents a share, from $309 million, or 61 cents, a year earlier, Houston-based Waste Management said today in a statement. Sales decreased 7.5 percent to $3.1 billion.

Read the full story here.

Harbour developers use web cam to chart demolition progress

The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. has launched Harbor Cam as an online viewpoint for people to watch progress of the $315 million Canal Side project along lower Main Street in Buffalo, New York.

The camera, set on the top floor of HSBC Center, gives a bird’s eye view of the Canal Side property that extends from the New York State Thruway south towards HSBC Arena. The camera went live yesterday afternoon.

For the full story and to access the web cam feed, please click here.

Canadian press reports on the dismantling of a water tower in Orillia.

A 26-metre water tower bearing the city’s name has stood in Orillia for more than 50 years, but the decaying landmark was beginning to wear out its welcome. One of the challenges to its demolition was that the six-legged tower stood on a small lot, about 21 by 46 metres, surrounded by residential housing. If the tower were toppled, it could have caused damage to surrounding properties built in its shadow.

For the full story from Daily Commercial News and Construction Record, click here.

Howard Button, CEO of the UK’s National Federation of Demolition Contractors, has become the latest industry personality to climb aboard the Twitter bandwagon.

As we have reported in recent days/weeks, the Twitter phenomenon has spread through the tech and celebrity worlds and is now being embraced as a rapid-fire communications tool by a whole host of individuals, companies and organisations.

Twitter users wishing to see what Howard is doing should for to www.twitter.com/nfdcceo and hit the follow button below his photo. (If you haven’t done so already, you might also want to go to www.twitter.com/demolitionnews and follow us too)

And if there are any other demolition industry Twitter users out there, please let us have your Twitter name so we can see what you’re doing.

Report on the demolition of a student village at Manchester’s Salford University.

The contract to demolish a large student village on the Salford University campus and create a wooded landscaped area has been successfully carried out by Manchester demolition contractors J Freeley Ltd.

The student village, situated on a 1.2 hectare site at Castle Irwell, had suffered from lack of investment and had become surplus to the University’s requirements, so the decision was taken to demolish it. The village comprised a total of 46 housing units in a number of three-storey accommodation blocks.

Health & safety was the top priority for the contract administrator, Paul Kirkup, from Salford University. Because of the high amount of heavy vehicle and demolition equipment movement within the populated area, separate entrance to the demolition site was constructed exclusively for J Freeley vehicles. J Freeley operatives were given a tight deadline to complete the demolition during a holiday period when few students were attending university.

“Vehicle movements were tightly managed and regulated throughout the project to ensure there was minimal disruption to the small number of university staff and students in the occupied parts of the accommodation area,” said Kirkup. He pointed out that sustainability was another key issue addressed during the demolition project.

“We were keen that as much demolition waste as possible generated during the project was recycled for future use rather than going to landfill. All metals, timbers, plastics and other materials were streamed and sent away for recycling. A total of 10,000 tonnes of concrete and bricks were
crushed and processed on site for use as recycled aggregates for future construction and civil engineering projects.”

As well as carrying out asbestos removal and demolition of the accommodation blocks, J Freeley were responsible for a range of ancillary works including service disconnection, car park construction and fencing. It carried out extensive landscaping amongst the retained trees. It then planted out the cleared area to create a green open space between the accommodation blocks still in use at Castle Irwell. J Freeley also laid footpaths through the area.