On 31 October 2008, General Demolition’s team of site managers and operatives will be presented with The City of London’s Considerate Contractor Gold Award for their overall performance at 1 Tudor Street, the former north wing of Unilever House close to Blackfriars Bridge in London. This is General Demolition’s second Gold Award in three years and will be presented by The Rt Hon the Lord Mayor, Alderman David Lewis at the Considerate Contractor Scheme Awards Ceremony to be held at Plaisterers Hall.

“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.

In 2006, a Gold Award was presented to General Demolition’s site management team, also led by Tom Henry, for its performance on Galliford Try’s 20-26 Cursitor Street project in London EC4.

Israel’s Environmental Protection Ministry is working on an arrangement to transfer responsibility for hauling away construction and demolition (C&D) waste to the local authorities in the coming months.

At present, responsibility lies with the individual or contractor, a largely unsatisfactory situation because most C&D waste does not reach authorized sites, Uri Tal, the ministry’s coordinator of C&D waste treatment, told The Jerusalem Post this week.

Just 2 million of the 7.5 million tons of waste produced per year in Israel reach official sites, Tal said. Of that 2 million, 1 million is recycled and about another million is deposited in landfills.

Full story here.

The Memorial Bridge in Bismarck, North Dakota is no more. Following a recent stage 1 implosion earlier this month, the second stage has just been completed (29 October). See the bridge fall below:

Despite protests and local community opinion, the former Ovaltine factory chimney finally disappeared from the Chicago skyline yesterday (29 October) in a controlled implosion.

Interesting time lapse video showing demolition works in progress at London 2012 Olympics site.

Crews from A&R Demolition working to prepare the West Texas Midland Savings Building for its pending implosion are expected back on scene this morning after a fire sparked in the elevator shaft Monday afternoon causing thick smoke to pour from the 13-story building as flames blazed inside.

The fire started at around 2:15 p.m. Monday at the corner of Colorado Street and Wall Street when hot slag from a cutting torch hit debris inside the elevator shaft, said Fire Marshal David Hickman. The smoke and flames continued flaring up until after 4:30 p.m.

Full story here.

The Daily Telegraph reports that the Government is considering performing another tax U-turn, just weeks
after its humiliating climb-down over the 10p tax rate.

Growing evidence of the disastrous side effects of the removal of empty property rates relief on commercial buildings has led members of the Government to reveal privately they are already considering reintroducing the relief.

Full story here.

UK contractor Keltbray has successfully completed works involving the dismantling and removal of concrete pack support structures at the former Willington A Cooling Tower in Derbyshire. One of five remaining towers, the 91 metre high structure measures some 66 metre diameter at the base.

A full report on this impressive contract is scheduled to appear in the Winter edition of Demolition & Dismantling magazine.

Diversified mobile equipment manufacturer Terex has announced job cuts as it reported financial results for the third quarter of 2008. The results showed a US$ 2.2 million charge associated with reducing staff levels with further reductions pending.

Full story here.

Volvo Construction Equipment has seen a steep decline in profit during the third quarter of 2008 despite growing sales by 2%.

Third quarter revenue just topped £1bn but profit dropped to £10.8m from £67.5m in the same period last year. Volvo puts this down to higher steel prices, a £24m cost of moving the motor grader business from the US to Canada and unfavorable currency fluctuations.

Read more here.