Further administrative delays push Bellaire Bridge demolition back still further.

There are times in this business when the planets align, the Gods smile, and the headlines and stories just seem to write themselves. Just a week after we uploaded our podcast on a Europe-wide study on administrative burdens comes a story of a bridge that is seemingly being held up by nothing more than paperwork.

As we have reported previously, the demolition of the Bellaire Bridge had been delayed by a variety of unforeseen administrative hold-ups. Several weeks on and those hold-ups apparently show now sign of subsiding. Despite now owning the bridge in question, Delta Demolition seems to have run headlong into a series of obstacles constructed almost entirely from red tape.

“Just like any contractor who comes to town to do any work, we require them to have a contractor’s license, workers comp, provide insurance and provide us guarantees that they own the bridge. They own the property, and they are going to do the work satisfactory so we don’t have any problems down the road,” said David McLaughlin, Benwood Code Enforcement officer.

Delta Demolition said it has also discovered asbestos in the window frames on the old toll shacks. The demolition crew now has to wait for results to come back for the shacks

To learn more, please click here to view the News 9 video.

Burglars caught on camera attempting to rob demolition company.

Police say crooks picked the wrong target in a late Wednesday night break-in.

Burglars hit the offices of Demolition Disposal Services on Hedger Lane in eastern Fayette County. Police received a call from the company’s owner, who was watching the crook in action on his surveillance system from Florida. When officers arrived, they couldn’t find anyone inside.

Rumours suggesting that the ill-advised crook has won himself the opportunity to hold the explosives inside the building during a forthcoming implosion are yet to be confirmed.

Institute of Demolition Engineers releases preliminary programme for London event.

As we have reported previously, the demolition professionals’ diary is fast filling up; and here’s yet another key event to shoe-horn into your schedule.

The Institute of Demolition Engineers (IDE) is returning to its spiritual London home on 24 September for its 2010 Autumn Seminar. And we have just received advanced details of what the programme will comprise: As well as advising of the latest legislation, guidance and regulations, this event will focus on:

• Demolition & Recycling Intergalactic
• Demolition & Asbestos Issues
• Remediation of Contaminated Waste
• Legal Definition of Waste
• NFDC Site Audit Scheme

The event will take place at One Great George Street, Westminster, London. Registration starts at 09.30 and the event will close at 16.00. There is a £150 for for attendance that includes a seated buffet lunch.

Further information is available via events@demolitionengineers.org or Tel: +44 1527 518777.

UK contractor celebrates website relaunch with new video.

Erith Group, one of the UK’s leading demolition contractors, has relaunched its corporate website. And, to celebrate, the company has just produced a short but really nice demolition video to run alongside it.

Run by National Federation of Demolition Contractors president David Darsey, Erith is a keen exponent of Internet usage in all its forms, as this video on the company’s adoption of cloud computing explains.

But here at Demolition News, we’re far more interested in the sharp end of the company’s activities so take a look at the video below.

University of Alabama starts demolition of Central Plant smokestack

The UA board of trustees approved plans in February to demolish the 73 metre (240-foot) high smokestack because of the rising cost of upkeep.

University spokeswoman Cathy Andreen said the cost of demolition is approximately $225,000. “The smokestack was in a deteriorating state, with bulges between the upper bands, weakening of the mortar joints, discoloration of the upper area, a rusted cast iron cap, and corrosion of the steel tension bands,” Andreen said.

Demolition will save $85,000 every 5 to 10 years in scheduled maintenance costs. Repairing the smokestack, which has been dormant for six years, in its current condition would cost $125,000.

The demolition is expected to be complete by the end of the month.

The 6.75 metre (22-foot) wide smokestack was built in 1965 to vent exhaust from the university’s coal-fired boilers. The smokestack, considered an eyesore in part because of the billows of smoke that came out of the top, was removed from service in 2004 and replaced by a modern, more energy-efficient exhaust system.

Read more here.

After four years of mothballs, demolition work is underway at Ford’s Norfolk facility.

Brandenburg demolition crews started the daunting task of tearing down nearly all of the buildings once used to build the F-150 truck.

The Ford company is making room for its potential buyer – Jacoby Development Group. The Atlanta developer wants to turn the 106-acre site into an alternative energy manufacturing and research park. It would lease or sale 65 acres of industrial-zoned parcels. The main assembly building would be subdivided into office space.

Rio de Janeiro’s Presidio Helio Gomes falls, just as predicted.

Demolition News’ friend Fabio Pinto carried out the implosion of the Presidio Helio Gomes in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday. And while our Portuguese barely allows us to order a beer unaided, even we can see that the job went smoothly (unlike the implosion of the Brazil national football team the previous evening) and in accordance with the computerised simulation released previously.

Population growth drives need to replace one bridge with two.

The Texas Department of Transportation has set aside almost $30 million to replace the Lake Marble Falls bridge with two new bridges. In order to maintain access, construction crews will build one bridge first, divert traffic on to it, then demolish the old one before building the second.

Population growth in Burnet County coupled with inefficiencies are the driving force behind the construction plan. Increased traffic flow is the main goal of this four year construction project that calls for two new bridges, one to serve northbound traffic and the other to serve southbound traffic.

The bridge remains one of the only ways to access Downtown Marble Falls and northern Burnet County.
“It’s too small,” said Bob Remack who told KXAN he drives over the bridge at least 10 times a day. “Look, you’ve got four lanes here, but there’s no dividers, it’s pretty brutal.” It’s a bridge so brutal, many locals nicknamed it the “killer” bridge.

View the video below.

Debate continues over Deutsche Bank demolition.

After being slowly dismantled, the former Deutsche Bank tower is now only 12 stories tall, and that means the end is finally in sight for the jet-black skyscraper — once 41 stories tall — that was mortally wounded in the 9/11 attacks.

But according to a new report from the New York Times, it looks like the building will still sow debate and disagreement even after it is gone. In a hint of the post-demolition aftermath, the construction manager for the dismantling, Bovis Lend Lease, is involved in a courtroom free-for-all over tens of millions of dollars with the state agency that hired it.

Bovis claimed in a complaint filed last month in State Supreme Court in Manhattan that it had been shortchanged at least $80 million for work it was ordered to perform at the site.

But in a court filing on June 23, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation excoriated the construction company for having the “gall” to seek extra compensation and profit, despite the project’s “being more than three and a half years behind schedule and despite tens of millions of dollars of costs and damages incurred by LMDC” from long delays and an August 2007 blaze in which two firefighters died.

“There are two Bovises,” said Avi Schick, chairman of the development corporation. “One that speaks with contrition and accepts responsibility for its safety lapses on the site, and then there’s the other Bovis with its hand in the taxpayer’s pocket.”

Read the full story here.

Time-lapse demolition video back up again.

Our more eagle-eyed readers might have noticed that, just over a week ago, we were involved in The Case of the Disappearing Video. No sooner had we posted details of the video showing the demolition of the Howard Street bridge at Hebburn in the North East of England by Thompsons of Prudhoe than the privacy parameters for the video were changed, forcing us to take the story down.

But, thanks to the swift action of Thompsons’ health and safety manager Chris Dobson, we now have our own copy of the video which means we can dictate who gets to see it.

Part of the works to facilitate the New Tyne Crossing project, Thompsons was employed to demolish the existing Howard Street Bridge situated over the southern exit of The Tyne Tunnel. The bridge was a one- way spanning reinforced concrete pinned portal frame measuring approximately 20 metres supported by piled foundations. The bridge deck varies in thickness from 686 mm at its centre to 1,067 mm at the supports. The works were completed under a full 36-hour road closure to the A19. Handover back to client, Bouygues Travaux Publics, was achieved six hours early.

Impressive job; impressive video. And thanks Chris!