Long established New York contractor to retire and sell entire equipment fleet.

Demolition News has learned that the team behind Big Apple Wrecking Corp and Safeway Environmental Corp have decided to retire and sell all of their equipment. During its 30 year history, it is estimated that Big Apple undertook in the region of $1.0 billion worth of work.

The equipment fleet, which comprises literally thousands of items including excavators, crawler loaders and skid steers, will go under the hammer at an auction to be held in The Bronx and online on 1 and 2 October.

A full equipment list and details of how to bid live or online can be found here.

Our video captures this unique machine – a Volvo and Kocurek joint venture – in action.

As readers of This Week in Demolition will be aware, our earlier coverage of the new Volvo ECR305Cl zero tailswing excavator with a high reach front from Kocurek Excavators Ltd met with a lot of discussion and more than its fair share of controversy.

So at the invitation of Volvo Construction Equipment GB’s national account manager Phil Jones – the man who dreamed up the machine in the first place – we hopped aboard the Demomobile and headed for Birmingham to see this unique machine for ourselves.

Hopefully, this will not only lay to rest the discussion about whether it’s a world first or not, but it might also be food for thought for equipment fleet operators looking for a multi-purpose machine with equal high reach and general site duty capabilities.

Demolition of New Zealand stadium slowed to allow investigation into collapse.

A civil engineer has been appointed to investigate why Stadium Southland’s roof collapsed under the weight of snow and report back on what went wrong.

The velodrome was the only part of of the $10 million venue to have emerged unscathed.

Members of the charitable trust which owns the stadium met with Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt and senior council officials on Monday afternoon to plan the scope of the investigation.

Civil engineer Graeme Cole has been appointed to find out what went so catastrophically wrong at the stadium after snow piled up on the roof causing it to collapse on Saturday morning.

Mayor Tim Shadbolt says he wants answers as soon as possible and expects Mr Cole’s report within four weeks.

Demolition work will begin at the site on Tuesday and will be slowly undertaken to allow Mr Cole to forensically pick through the remains to determine what failed and why.

Read the full story here.

Stubborn Cemex chimney remains partially intact following blast.

The explosive demolition of a chimney at a Cemex facility in Rochester yesterday failed to deliver the anticipated results, with a base section remaining defiantly upright. Thankfully, according to initial reports from Armoury Group’s blasting team, the remaining section is in a safe and stable condition that will allow it to be brought down using a high reach excavator.

View the video below or get the full story behind the blast here.

Demolition of germination and kiln Canada Malting Company began Wednesday.

Piece by piece, excavators pulled apart the aged steel and concrete that was once one of the most innovative buildings around, but a part of the architectural history that is the Canada Malting Company will remain standing.

The demolition of the germination and kiln buildings at the old Canada Malting Company began on Wednesday, Sept. 15, but the iconic silos that have been at water’s edge for more than 60 years will be left in place.

This two-phase and more than $12 million redevelopment project is an effort by the City of Toronto to make the site safe. The plan is to do some initial rehabilitation work to the silos and then attract development to the area, which will help to preserve the historic site at the foot of Bathurst Street on the western waterfront.

“The city had the resources to do a full demolition and they took a hard look at that and understood internally, and council approved, that there was certainly a portion of the site that needed to be retained, not just in a nominal way, but in a really important way,” said Mary MacDonald, the city’s acting manager of Heritage Preservation Services.

Implosion fells 20 year old hotel but leaves it largely in one piece.

The 20-year-old Liao Show hotel was demolished on September 15 at 5.40 am local time. But when the dust had settled, it appeared that the structure had been less imploded and more just laid down gently on its side.

More photos here.

A1 bridge disappears overnight at the hands of Tyne Tees Demolition.

As part of the ongoing A1 upgrade to motorway in North Yorkshire, Tyne Tees Demolition won the contract for the site clearance and demolition works. The main contract, a joint venture between Carillion and Morgan Sindall, covers a 23 kilometre section of motorway and is valued at £319 million. The entire contract is expected to last for three years, with the renewed motorway opening in June 2012.

The new carriageway is to be built to the east of the existing road and this required the demolition of the roadside structures including three farmsteads, four houses, two roadside cafes and two service stations. Tyne Tees Demolition has undertaken the works during 2009-10 phased to suit the main contract requirements.

The first of these overbridges was demolished between the hours of 20.00 on 4 September and 12.00 5 September 2010.

And thanks to Tune Tees Demolition managing director Dave Gauja, we can bring you an exclusive time lapse video of the works in progress, complete with a classical music soundtrack.

Houston-based Cherry recently won a 2010 APEX (Award for Project Excellence) Award from the Houston chapter of Associated General Contractors (AGC).

AGC honored Cherry for its safe and efficient demolition of the Savoy Hotel in downtown Houston in October 2009. The City of Houston had declared 103-year-old building structurally unsound and a safety hazard. Cherry’s challenges included determining the safest way to bring down the old hotel without damaging an attached 17-story addition and low-rise structure, the City’s Metro light rail lines on Main Street and surrounding trees. Crews also had to move quickly to complete the most critical portion of the demolition in order to meet a rapid timetable set by Metro.

“We are exceedingly pleased to be recognized with one of our industry’s most prestigious awards,” said Mike Dokell, manager of Cherry’s Commercial, Interior and Residential Demolition Division. “The Savoy hotel demolition was challenging on many levels, and it was the perfect project to demonstrate how effectively we could work as a team and coordinate our activities with a large number of governmental and regulatory agencies.”

Exclusive video of Erith Group presentation to European Demolition Association.

David Darsey, managing director of Erith Group and president of the National Federation of Demolition Contractors, continued his globetrotting last week with a whistle-stop visit to the EDA conference in Sweden.

Darsey – who has already given speeches as far afield as the US and Sardinia in recent months – was in Stockholm to provide a presentation on the technical demolition and facade retention works carried out by his company at the world famous Cafe Royal in London.

In this exclusive video, Darsey and his colleague Stuart Accleton give the low-down on this highly complex contract – which has been shortlisted in the forthcoming 2010 Demolition Awards – and to show off a superb 3D modeling of the works in progress.

Cafe Royal Complete from Mark Anthony on Vimeo.

EDA Autumn Conference marks official launch of new guidance notes.

It has been several years in the making and has been the subject of more discussion and rewrites than a pre-Election political manifesto, but the European Demolition Association’s own High Reach Guidance was officially unveiled last week in all its multi-lingual glory.

Stefano Panseri, part of the EDA’s technical committee and the driving force behind the new document, unveiled the guidance on the European Demolition Association stand at the DEMCON exhibition in Sweden. And we were there to capture his speech:

High Reach Guidance Launch from Mark Anthony on Vimeo.