Illegal storeys os luxury residental building must come down, officials say.

The Moscow City Council ordered to demolish 22 illegally-built floors of a luxury residential complex, a council source said on Wednesday. The source said the developer had illegally built 22 floors that were not included to the initial project plans approved by the city. Most of the apartments have already been sold, including the penthouses.

“The developer will have to return money to the customers who bought apartments there,” the source said.

Don-Stroy Development Company, the company responsible for the construction of the complex as well as other luxury residential projects in Moscow, has denied the report, however.

“There are no decisions, decrees or resolutions concerning the demolition of [several floors of] the House on Mosfilmovskaya high-rise. We assure everybody who has purchased an apartment in this object that the company’s commitments to its customers will be fully implemented,” a DON-Stroy press service statement said.

Read more here.

News emerging that five people have been hurt by collapsing wall in Kunming.

At least five people were injured, one critically, when a seven-meter-high wall collapsed into Dongfeng Xi Lu at about 11am this morning. The wall was part of the Yunnan Hotel, which is currently undergoing demolition. The hotel is located on Dongfeng Xi Lu near Wacang Nan Lu in downtown Kunming.

Eyewitnesses reported hearing a loud crash and seeing a cloud of dust. After the dust dissipated a pile of rubble was visible spread across the near Dongfeng Xi Lu bicycle lane and lodged against a public bus in the street. The collapse and ensuing emergency response blocked traffic on the major east-west thoroughfare until about noon.

Equipment used to attack last remaining hot spot at meat packing plant.

Demolition equipment was brought in Tuesday afternoon to attack what fire officials believed was the last hot spot of fire in the walls of the former Emge meat-packing plant near Fort Branch, Indiana.

Crews from Evansville-based Summit Environmental Services and firefighters from throughout the area worked through the night Monday and into early afternoon Tuesday to extinguish hot spots smoldering in the walls of the building.

Because the insulation that was burning was contained between walls of concrete and concrete block, it was difficult to get at it with conventional firefighting equipment and techniques.

The crews from the contractor were brought in at the EPA’s expense Monday afternoon to tear into the walls to reach the smoldering insulation so firefighters could douse it with water from tanker trucks provided by fire departments from throughout the area.

Read the full story here.

Midlands-based contractor wins Basing View revamp contract.

UK demolition firm the Armoury Group has been appointed by a south-east council to kick off a major regeneration project.

The Birmingham-based company will demolish two buildings to make way for a revamp of Basingstoke’s primary town centre business hub, known as Basing View.

The work is part of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s plans to turn the central office location into a new multi-million pound, modern urban business centre.

Read more here.

Demolition of Kuala Lumpur jail captured in beautiful high definition video.

The demolition of the century-old Pudu Prison in Malaysia has generated mixed reactions from the public with some saying that it should be preserved and others commenting that it should make way for new development. Either way, its nighttime demolition makes for a staggeringly beautiful video.

Demolition contractor loses a month while city issues permit.

It’s taken almost 20 years to find someone to demolish the Bellaire Toll Bridge. It will take a mere 8 seconds for it to disappear into the Ohio River. And if all goes as planned, the bridge will come down sometime “just before” or “just after” Labor Day weekend, the lead contractor for the project said Monday. Preliminary work is set to begin after July 5.

Lee Chaklos of Delta Demolition Inc. had hoped to already have efforts under way to remove the concrete approach to the span that looms over Eighth Street in Benwood. However, work cannot begin until city officials issue the company a permit.

Chaklos said city officials threw him “a curveball” by requiring he provide about 16 pieces of documentation before issuing that permit. “They backed us up about 30 days,” he said.

City leaders are seeking proof of bonding and workers’ compensation payments from Delta Demolition, as well as a copy of the company’s plans for at least the initial phase of work and a list of subcontractors. In addition, Delta Demolition must secure a right-of-way permit from CSX, with all the information being provided to the city, according to Benwood Police Chief Frank Longwell.

Read more here.

The BBC’s top-rated motoring show is back this Sunday with a demolition secret.

Fed up with football? Weary with Wimbledon? Still seeking some manly-type TV viewing that doesn’t involve grown men chasing balls about the place.

Then UK readers will be delighted to learn that the new series of BBC motoring show Top Gear is back this weekend. And together with Messrs Clarkson, Captain Slow and The Hamster, the new series is promising a demolition secret for the series opener.

The producers are playing their cards very close to their chests and are giving nothing away about what the secret might be. But we have booked our Sky+ for BBC2 at 8 pm on Sunday 27 June to look out for a few familiar faces.

Canadian run of demolition “bad luck continues”

A Toronto man has been found alive after spending three days under the debris of his demolished garage.

The man, in his 50s, became trapped under the debris while he was using a power saw to demolish his garage in Saint-Lambert-de-Desmeloizes, in northwestern Quebec, officials said.

The man lives alone and after friends couldn’t reach him, he was reported missing Saturday morning, officials said.

Read more here.

Dozens gather to watch the implosion of the Guyandotte Bridge.

Crews have today imploded the Guyandotte Bridge. The bridge, which used to connect Fifth Avenue to the Guyandotte neighborhood, has been closed to traffic for several years.

The West Virginia Department of Transportation is preparing to build a new larger bridge in the same location. See the (very) raw video below.

July deadline set for second major Rio de Janeiro implosion.

One of the most impressive implosions we have seen took place in Brazil back in March this year when our good friend Fabio Bruno Pinto shot the Presidio Frei Caneca, formerly Rio’s oldest prison.

Well Fabio is now planning to repeat that exercise with the implosion of a 3,700 square metre, four storey structure that is located just a few metres away from the site of his earlier triumph.

Word is that UK broadcaster, the BBC, is sending a film crew to capture what promises to be another Brazillian spectacular when Fabio hots the button on 3 July. (We’d love to be there too but, frankly, we do’t quite have the travel budget afforded to these major TV companies so we’ll be watching from a distance).

Before then, we’re hoping to bring you a video of the computer simulation used to predict and control how the 61 metre long building will fall.

Watch this space.