New Zealand contractor fined over illegal dumping of demolition waste.

A Christchurch demolition company has been fined $6,000 and ordered to pay costs to Environment Canterbury after being found guilty of dumping demolition waste into a pit at a farm in Yaldhurst. The farm was located above an unconfined aquifer, and there was no resource consent allowing the dumping of the demolition waste at that location.

J Mould Demolition pleaded guilty to a charge of illegally dumping waste material on the property of Andrew John Pattullo at 81-83 Conservators Road, Yaldhurst, west of Christchurch. On July 7, 2009, Environment Canterbury officers investigated a report that trucks containing waste had entered Mr Pattullo’s property and intercepted a truck belonging to J Mould Demolition.

The driver admitted that he had deposited three truckloads of demolition material earlier that day. Upon inspecting the property, officers observed that the pit where it had been dumped contained treated timber and other waste material which Mr Pattullo admitted had been deposited on his land by the demolition company. Mr Pattullo was prosecuted and fined for unauthorised discharges to air and land in late 2009 in a separate case.

Read more here.

Unstable smokestack is being manually demolished.

The Cedar Rapids smokestack that garnered so much attention in recent months began coming down yesterday morning with little fanfare.

Two workers from D.W. Zinser of Walford sprayed water and used a pneumatic jackhammer to dismantle the 55 metre (180-foot) tall smokestack at the former Sinclair meatpacking plant.

At a rate of about one foot an hour, the century-old brick structure began falling, beginning about 9:30 a.m. Only a handful of reporters and city staff watched, with one observer who had known workers at the plant, also known as Wilson & Co. and Farmstead Foods.

“They’re moving right along now,” said John Riggs, the city’s project manager for flood demolition.

Riggs said the entire Sinclair site, flooded in 2008 and damaged by two subsequent fires, is treated as if contains hazardous materials, such as asbestos.

Read more here or view the video below.

AED’s Eric Kelly issues open letter on Bellaire Bridge debacle.

Having crossed swords with AED’s Eric Kelly in the past, we knew it was only a matter of time before we received his side of events over the Bellaire Bridge blasting contract that is currently being disputed with Delta Demolition. And we didn’t have to wait for long.

Until now, Kelly has retained a professional silence over the dispute that has apparently led to Delta offering the blasting portion of the work to alternative companies. However, following one local newspaper article entitled “Reality Show Blasters No Blowing Up Bridge”, Kelly has issued an open letter to the local and trade media which we have replicated in its entirety below:

Recent articles and reports in the media contain statements that require a response from AED. The confidentiality agreement signed June 01, 2010 by KDC Investments, Delta Demolition and AED states that no communication regarding the contracts of the above parties is to be discussed with any other parties. However at the approval of our counsel Art Bistline, AED submits the following information to dispute the comments made in the July 13, 2010 article titled “Reality Show Blasters Not Blowing Up Bridge”.

AED has been working with the previous owner of the bridge and the City of Benwood since 2008 and has extended every professional effort to bring the demolition to fruition. The delays by Delta Demolition and KDC Investments have been well documented by the City of Benwood and have no reflection on AED. Future statements will be forth coming from counsel once the contracts for ownership and demolition are processed through the judicial system. Once again AED would like to thank the citizens of Benwood and the Benwood City Officials for their support and professional response.

We’ve not heard the last of this one.

Demolition delays caused by presence of nesting birds.

Work to demolish a UK tower block was delayed after a pair of peregrine falcons set up home on the building’s roof. The parents and three chicks flew their nest last week at Bayley Tower in Bromford, Birmingham.

Birmingham City Council housing spokesman John Lines said: “I don’t normally like it when tenants move into my properties and don’t pay rent, but in this case I’ll make an exception.

“We believe this is the first successful breeding of falcons in Birmingham for many years.”

Read the full story here.

Canadian demolition back in the news for all the wrong reasons…again.

There was a time, just a few short months ago, when China was well on its way to securing the DemolitionNews.com Worst Demolition Nation award for its ongoing contributions to the irreversible tarnishing of this business of ours.

But, just as we were starting to think that the Chinese had established an unassailable lead, up steps Canada with a last-ditch attempt to snatch a surprise victory. First we had an impressive (and we use the word loosely) double near-miss on a single Vancouver site. Then, last week, we had an Edmonton company throwing its weight behind the country’s bid for poor demolition world dominance by dumping another building in a busy street.

And now, just to prove that there’s more to the Canadians than unexpected and unplanned collapses, along comes Avenue Construction which proceeds to demolish a former meat packing plant without a permit, depositing asbestos about the place like maple leaves in a national procession.

The Chinese had better watch their backs; the Canadians are coming!

One company’s demise is another’s potential gain.

In the past two years or so, far too many in our business have been bitten by the unseen threat of recession. However, there have been times in recent weeks when it appeared that the danger had at long last subsided.

But, just when we all thought it was safe to go back in the water, the unexpected collapse of the Controlled Group serves as a timely reminder that demolition’s garden is far from rosy right now; and while the light at the end of the tunnel is now visible once again, it remains frustratingly out of reach.

No-one likes to see a company fail, particularly one in the close-knit demolition community – The business may be highly competitive but we all feel the blast wave when another company falls.

However, it is the human cost of such failures that are, perhaps, hardest to take. Controlled Group employed a number of highly-trained and highly-skilled individuals that have now seen all their hard work vanish in an instant.

As many of you are aware, DemolitionNews.com was instrumental in the creation of demolition-jobs.co.uk, a recruitment website that allows demolition professionals to advertise their availability to work to potential employers. Thanks to the backing of the National Federation of Demolition Contractors, the site is free to both employees and employers. We would, therefore, urge all the former Controlled Group employees to make their way over to demolition-jobs.co.uk to list their details.

At the same time, we have already received impressive CVs from the company’s former business development director and contaminated land remediation specialist which we will gladly forward to prospective employers.

So if you have been caught up in the Controlled Group collapse, please be sure to register at demolition-jobs.co.uk. If you’re one of the fortunate UK demolition companies that is still on the recruitment path, please check out demolition-jobs.co.uk – the site currently contains details of a number of experienced industry professionals seeking roles ranging from operative to supervisor and contracts manager levels and it might just contain the details of your next employee. And if you’re specifically seeking an experienced demolition business development person or a contaminated land remediation specialist, please drop a line to manthony@markanthonypublicity.co.uk and we’ll get those CVs over to you.

Details start to emerge from failed Yorkshire-based contractor.

News is starting to filter out of the rubble of the collapsed Controlled Group which was forced to call in the administrators on Friday of last week.

Although no official statement has yet been made, DemolitionNews.com can exclusively reveal that the company’s highly experienced business development director Alison Knowles has salvaged the company’s Oracle surveying and health and safety arm. “I did not want to see it die after so much work getting it accredited,” she says.

While her former colleagues at Controlled Group are forced to find alternative employment, Knowles – whose CV includes stints with other notable UK contractors Cuddy Group and EDS – is now seeking financial backing for Oracle.

“My situation now is that I need to either find a backer to help me grow Oracle or find a company that needs my skills and would be interested in taking Oracle on for its own ends,” Knowles concludes.

Nairobi businessman sees home destroyed just weeks before he was due to move in.

Residents of Spring Valley in Nairobi watched in horror as demolition crews moved in and turned an almost complete, eight-bedroom house into a heap of rubble, claiming it was built on a road reserve. The house belonging to businessman Mike Maina Kamau was pulled down in a morning operation led by Roads Minister Franklin Bett and senior ministry officials.

“We are working on the Northern Bypass and this property is built inside a road reserve. Our repeated warnings to the owner to vacate have been ignored. That is why we decided to demolish it,” said the minister.

Mr Bett warned other buildings on the road reserve would also be pulled down to pave way for the construction of the 21 km bypass.

But the owners of the property, which also has a swimming pool, gym and sauna, dismissed the minister’s claims, adding the land was legally acquired. “This building is legally recognised by the Ministry of Lands and the City Council of Nairobi and we have all the documents to prove that. The demolition is illegal and we will seek for damages in court,” said Maina’s brother, Kennedy Wainaina.

Maina’s lawyer, John Mburu, said his client was distressed at the loss of his property.

“My client had invested his hard-earned money to build a home for his family, but an illegal move by the Ministry of Roads has deprived him of his right,” he said.

Read more here.

Confusion reigns as Delta says that AED won’t be handling the blast.

According to the old adage, “there’s many a slip twixt cup and lip” or, in more modern parlance, don’t count your chickens will they’ve hatched. But we would have thought that a blasting company that effectively buys a contract that is then partially handed over to a more local demolition contractor might justifiably expect to be involved when the final blast arrives.

But, according to another old adage (there really is an adage for every occasion), assumption is the mother of all cock-ups and so it has apparently proved on the on-off contract to demolish the Bellaire Bridge that has apparently left Eric Kelly and the AED team out in the cold.

In May, former bridge owner Roger Barack sold the Bellaire Bridge to AED for $1. Shortly after, AED sold the bridge to Krystle Chaklos of Delta Demolition, for $25,000. Given that the bridge is to be shot in early October, we naturally thought that explosives experts AED had the blasting contract in the bag.

Not so, according to reports in the Wheeling News-Register. “We are no longer working with Eric Kelly – not anymore,” Delta’s Lee Chaklos said. “We did not have a contract. We’re going to be putting the blasting out for bid.” Chaklos did not provide a reason for dropping AED from the project and declined additional comment.

An unidentified spokesman in AED’s office said Monday the company “was working on it” and that Kelly was in meetings pertaining to the bridge project.

Chaklos said change in blasting subcontractors won’t affect his timeline for taking down the bridge, which is now set to come down Oct. 1.

We’re currently trying to speak to Eric Kelly to get his take on this but, in the meantime, you can read more here.

Leading UK contractor moves to dispel panic over redundancy consultations.

Thompsons of Prudhoe has entered a consultation period on possible redundancies, but says it has not yet decided whether any are to be made.

The Northumberland firm has given 30-days notice of possible cuts to more than 80 of its 320 workers, but director John Burdon said that this was due to a legal requirement to inform all staff working in areas that may encounter reductions.

He said: “We have to notify quite a large number of people, even though there wouldn’t be anywhere near that number, if any. We haven’t even decided yet if anyone will be made redundant. This process is something we have to do to comply with legislation and treat our workers fairly. We find it’s a pity we have to do this as a lot of employees may be worried when they have no need to be.”

Thompsons has been involved in demolition projects such as the former Tyne Tees Studios, the Howard Street Bridge and Gateshead town centre’s multi-storey ‘Get Carter’ car park.

Read more here.