AED cites fraud but court finds in favour of KDC Investments.

It is a bridge that has changed ownership with the rapidity and frequency that most of us change our socks. But the disputed ownership of the Bellaire Bridge finally seems to have been settled. For now.

According to attorney Randall Schmitz, KDC Investments owns the bridge, but Advanced Explosives Demolition (AED), claimed it was fraudulently induced to selling the bridge. According to court documents, a district judge determined that there was no evidence of fraud and ownership remains with KDC.

Delta Demolition’s Lee Chaklos said he is looking forward to starting work after a series of delays in court. He said the next steps include waiting for the Coast Guard to reinstate a notice to proceed, and a permit from the city of Benwood.

“I believe that if there’s anything that the city needs from us, it should be something that we already have and if we don’t it should be so minute that it won’t take us but maybe a few days to get,” he said. Chaklos said they will also have to get an asbestos notice from an asbestos contractor, along with a 2-day mariner’s notice. “Once the mariners’ notice has expired and we have permit in hand, we’re going to go ahead and start work on the bridge,” he said.

But while Chaklos makes ready to mobilise, the fat lady hasn’t started singing quite yet. Schmitz said AED has 42 days to file an appeal.

Read more here.

Bridge tumbles faster than a high roller’s luck in Las Vegas.

Crews from Las Vegas Paving will spend Monday night demolishing the Warm Springs Bridge near Interstate 15. The bridge has stood since the presidency of John F. Kennedy.

Unlike most Las Vegas demolitions which are over in seconds, this demolition will be done over several hours. Hydraulic hammers, sheers, and pulverizers started knocking the bridge down around 10 p.m. Monday. They will stay at it until the bridge is gone for good.

A modern four-lane bridge will replace the old two-lane bridge. It could eventually expand to six lanes.

Read more here, or view the video below:

Memorial Coliseum deadline moved to March

After months of delays in demolishing Memorial Coliseum, city officials now say work will be complete by early March.

Demolition began last May, and the original deadline of 12 August has been rescheduled several times. The latest one was the end of January. City officials sent a letter in mid-January to contractor A&R Demolition and its bonding company to resolve ongoing delays.

City Project Manager Jerry Shoemaker said the demolition company, which is having financial struggles, did commit to finishing the project, a promise vetted by the bonding company.

“We could go ahead and suspend the work and do it ourselves, but that could open it up to a lot of problems,” Shoemaker said. “This is really the best scenario for the city.”

Personnel changes, money problems and bad weather have delayed work. The company owes the city thousands of dollars with $500 added each day the project stays incomplete. A company official could not be immediately reached for comment.

Over the past week, contractors have been working at the site and using heavy machinery to dig out a final portion of the structure — anchors of the building located five feet below ground. Once that work is complete, contractors will add backfill, an irrigation system and grass seeding.

Read more here.

Iowa implosion causes damage to new bridge.

Officials say plans to demolish an old pier in Burlington by blowing it ended up damaging a section of a new railroad bridge.

The Hawk Eye reports that 90-feet of the new 356-foot span of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway bridge was damaged after an explosion charge was set off to remove the pier Saturday night. . No injuries were reported.

BNSF spokeswoman Amy McBeth says an investigation is under way to determine what happened.

Read more here.

The second edition of Demo Talk Radio is live NOW.

And they said it would never last!
Friends, readers, countrymen. Lend me your ears. The second edition of Demo Talk Radio, the online radio show about and for the global demolition industry, is live and awaiting your listening pleasure.

We’re only two episodes in and already we’re doing one-off specials. We had high hopes of making this another multi-subject broadcast but once we got off the line with Dick Green of IndEx Explosive Engineers, Fabio Bruno Pinto of Fabio Bruno Construcoes in Brazil, and Eric Kelly from the US, we quickly realised that our discussion about the future of the explosive demolition sector was a show in itself.

So please, pour yourself a coffee, sit back, and enjoy Demo Talk Radio #2 (just hit the play button below).

Heavy Decom International’s new “baby” rolls off Kocurek production line.

It’s been the talk of the high reach excavator market for months; but Heavy Decom International’s new machine is ready to go to work.

Based on an Hitachi EX1200 hydraulic excavator, the machine has undergone extensive modification at the Kocurek Excavator facility in Ipswich. Those modifications include:
• Converting the machine to run on biodegradable hydraulic oil
• Hydraulically-removable counterweight and an elevating/tilting cab
• Walkways and handrails to the two main booms and the topside of the machine for optimum operator safety.

These modifications have increased the machine’s operating weight from an original 120 tonnes to 200 tonnes.

But it is the change of front-end equipment that has made the greatest difference to the machine. Heavy Decom International specified the unit with both a three-piece triple arm and a four-piece quad boom. These allow the machine to carry a 25 tonne shear to a working height of 26 metres; and a smaller 12.8 tonne Genesis GXP1500R to 33 metres. The machine can carry a 7.0 tonne tool to its maximum 38 metre working height.

We are hoping to capture some exclusive video of the machine when it goes to work. But, in the meantime, these exclusive photos highlight the sheer scale of this mega-machine.

After lying dormant for five years, Vetch Field is finally coming down.

The BBC is reporting that demolition work is finally underway at Vetch Field, the stadium that was home to Swansea City football club which moved to the nearby Liberty Stadium some five years ago.

Opened in 1912, the ground held around 12,000 at the time of its closure, but upwards of 30,000 at its peak.

The demolition phase is likely to last about four months. A planning application to landscape the site once it’s been demolished has been submitted and, if approved, landscaping should be complete by the end of the summer. The contract is being undertaken by leading Welsh demolition contractor, Cuddy Group.

Read more here.

Preparing for demolition of General Motors plant taking longer than anticipated.

Dismantling the Massena plant once was set to begin as early as last July. But after PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were discovered in plant equipment last summer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began oversight of the demolition process.

The EPA has taken extra time to collect soil samples and other data before taking down the plant, according to project manager Anne E. Kelly. That will speed up remediating the contaminated parts of the site once the plant is down, Ms. Kelly said.

“We’re trying to collect as much data as possible so that once the cleanup and remediation activities actually start, there are less questions and less surprises,” she said.

Read more here.

DemolitionNews launches industry-specific Amazon store.

Take a look to the left of this article; that’s it, just below the Twitter update and the word “Sponsors”. You’re looking at the new DemolitionNews Amazon store front.

We are using this feature in order to share with you some of the latest industry-related products available through the world’s largest online retailer. The stock so far includes a variety of videos, computer games and, of course, demolition books.

To view the product carousel, click and hold the up and down arrows at the bottom; you can then click the inidvidual items to be taken straight to Amazon for further details and for your opportunity to buy.

We will be replenishing the “stock” on a regular basis so please, check back often. There’s no pressure to buy; just a new way for us to share with you what we’re looking at and buying ourselves.

New edition of the NFDC’s flagship magazine is available to read online.

The Winter 2010/11 edition of Demolition & Dismantling, the magazine of the National Federation of Demolition Contractors, is currently winging its way to Federation members, subscribers and other interested parties across the UK as we speak.

But if you can’t wait to get your hands on the latest paper edition, you can read it online below: