An Amtrak train has collided with a low-bed trailer carrying a demolition excavator.

A truck driver had a lucky escape when the truck-trailer with which he was hauling a demolition excavator became trapped on a level crossing and was struck by an oncoming Amtrak train in Mebane, North Carolina.

Witnesses said a flat bed truck was hauling a large excavator used for construction when it got stuck on the tracks as the crossing arms came down.

“He was trying to disconnect his trailer because the train was coming, the gates were coming down,” said witness Danny Eldred.

Alamance law enforcement says the driver tried to dislodge the truck, it may have had mechanical problem before it hit the track.

The truck driver was able to get out before the engine of Amtrak train 73 – The Piedmont – slammed into the truck. Authorities said the driver was Barry Lazaro of Wake Forest, owner of Lazaro Demolition and Contracting.

Read more or view the video here. here

Operator unhurt following Missouri bridge collapse.

Those of you that have been following Demolition News since the very beginning might recall that we featured a video of a Komastu Dash-8 excavator rolling down the hill and suffering only minimal damage to the operator’s cab. Since that time, that video has gone on to attract more than 100,000 hits and several comments disputing the veracity of the test.

Well the doubters can think again after a bridge collapse in Missouri has tested the strength of the Komatsu cab in true working conditions and survived to tell the tale.

The incident happened Saturday afternoon as crews were tearing down the bridge on southbound I-270. MoDOT says that during demolition a piece of the bridge collapsed, causing an excavator to fall. Maryland Heights Police responded to the scene and found that the driver was shaken up but not seriously injured.

You can read more here but take a look at the video below to see just how fortunate he was to be surrounded by some reliable metal.

Jet Demolition (Pty) Ltd navigates huge bid spread to land Athlone Tower contract.

With the opening match of the 2010 soccer World Cup just a few weeks ago, the City of Cape Town in South Africa has finally awarded the contract to fell the crumbling Athlone Towers.

The contract has been awarded to Jet Demolition (Pty) Ltd, but only after the contract attracted eight bids that ranged from R4.79 to R23.46 million ($600,000 to $2.99 million).

“Following an evaluation and a check for compliance with the tender requirements, the lowest offer which complied with the specification – R6.496 million (800,000) was submitted by Jet Demolition (Pty) Ltd,” said Clive Justus, the City of Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for utility services.

There is now news yet on the preferred demolition method.

Read more here.

Demolition under scrutiny after Detroit street collapse.

Officials said it may take them a while to figure out just what caused a school-bus-sized chunk of the Lafayette Boulevard sidewalk and traffic lane to collapse Wednesday night. The pavement fell into the hole in downtown Detroit where the demolished Lafayette Building once stood. The collapse forced the closure of Lafayette between Shelby and Griswold. MichCon crews had plugged a small gas leak by midmorning Thursday, and city water department crews were on the scene to deal with a broken water line.

Waymon Guillebeaux, vice president for the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., said several elements were involved in the collapse.

• A water main running beneath Lafayette broke, leaking water into the soil.
• A retaining wall enclosing the side of the Lafayette Building site was damaged.
• Heavy equipment used in the demolition and cleanup of the Lafayette Building site caused vibrations.

But the sequence of the failure, and its ultimate cause, remain unsolved.

A bulldozer and other earth-moving equipment pushed dirt into the gap to shore up retaining walls of a nearby building and the street itself.

The collapse site runs alongside the gaping hole where the recently demolished Lafayette Building once stood. Owned by the City of Detroit, the building was razed by Adamo Demolition Co. under a contract with the city’s Downtown Development Authority.

Read more here.

Demolition of gold mine halted while accident investigation progresses.

Demolition and cleanup work at the former Colomac gold mine in Canada’s Northwest Territories has been suspended while federal officials investigate an accident that happened at the decommissioned mine site late last month.

A foreman suffered leg injuries when a 2½-centimetre steel cable snapped during efforts to pull down a secondary crusher building at the mine site, located about 220 kilometeres northwest of Yellowknife.

Work at the site has been suspended to ensure that the contractor, Aboriginal Engineering Ltd., has met accepted safety standards for its demolition plans, said Annette Hopkins, the federal Indian and Northern Affairs Department’s associate regional director general in Yellowknife.

Hopkins said the demolition will not resume until the Human Resources and Skills Development Department, which is leading the investigation, gives its approval.

“The initial investigation has been completed. Once Human Resources [and] Skills Development Canada has reviewed that material, they will come back to the three parties with regard to their comments and recommendations,” Hopkins told CBC News on Thursday.

“The demolition work will not recommence until we have received HRSDC’s recommendations with regard to any changes that might be required to recommence those operations.”

Read more here.

Houston plans largest one day demolition of abandoned buildings

The city is preparing to demolish 185 abandoned homes Saturday, the largest one-day total in its history in an intensifying effort to crack down on dangerous and vacant properties that often play host to blight and criminal activity.

“Demolition Day,” which Mayor Annise Parker announced in her state of the city speech last month, is the culmination of months of effort by the Houston Police Department’s Neighborhood Protection Corps to find owners and encourage them to take care of their properties.

Since 2005, the city has taken down 3,909 buildings that were ordered demolished after efforts to contact the owners and urge them to make repairs were unsuccessful.

Read the full story here.

Contractor returns to site to find imitation masterpieces on perimeter hoarding.

I must admit that I have never quite seen the point of graffiti. For all the do-gooder liberal talk of self-expression and creativity, most of it appears to be the work of someone with too much time on their hands and ready access to spray paint or just plain-old vandalism.

However, having just received these photos from UK contractor Button-Linguard, we may have to review our stance on this art form.

The company had erected a hoarding around the perimeter of a site in Chesham and, as is too often the case, the hoarding began to attract graffiti artists. But what sets these artists aside is that they happed switched their usual “Kevin woz ere” and smiley faces for something far more cultured.

In fact, within a few days, the hoarding has attracted passable copies of works by Picasso, Damien Hirst, Jackson Pollock and Edvard Munch to name but a few. In fact, one anonymous artists was so proud of his depiction of an elephant complete with a 3-D trunk that he actually framed his piece for posterity.

Our thanks to Button-Linguard’s Roy Gibbons for sharing these photos.

The on-off demolition of the Bellaire Bridge will now be charged to Eric Kelly’s team.

In a curious turn of events, the on-off Bellaire Bridge demolition project at last seems closer to a satisfactory conclusion…well, satisfactory for everyone except Delta Demolition.

We reported yesterday morning that the company was in discussion with city officials and the local Coast Guard and that a demolition plan was imminent. By yesterday evening, however, the local Coast Guard was admitting that discussions had taken place but that any talk of a demolition plan was premature.

And then, just when locals thought that they’d have to stare at the rusting hulk for even longer, in comes the news that Eric Kelly and the Advanced Explosive Demolition team has actually purchased the privately-owned bridge and will start demolition work almost immediately.

Kelly says it will take two weeks to get the deck off before the implosion work begins. He will implode the West Tower first and then move to the East span.

In response to low bid prices, Demolition News launches new bid price calculator.

The issue of low bid prices is one that has troubled us since we launched Demolition News nearly two years ago. As far as we can see, these low prices are merely undermining this great industry of ours, prolonging the recession, and making it harder and harder for professional companies to compete and invest.

We have, therefore, taken it upon ourselves to produce a brand-new Bid Price Calculator to facilitate a far easier method of price compilation.

But we cannot take all the credit. In fact, the calculator has been developed using market intelligence and known bid prices from the past 18 months on both sides of the Atlantic and with the input of demolition contractors large and small.

“The Bid Price Calculator is allowing us to give something back to the demolition industry in a simple yet practical way,” says the calculator’s originator and Demolition News founder, Mark Anthony. “In today’s highly competitive and fast-paced industry, demolition professionals need to be able to calculate bid prices quickly and accurately in a way that truly reflects the demands of our post-recessionary market.”

Best of all, the Bid Price Calculator is entirely FREE.

To try it for yourselves, please just click here.

Radio Iowa reports demolition worker has been hospitalised in excavator accident.

A Fairbank man was badly hurt in a silo collapse on Thursday afternoon in northeast Iowa near the town of West Union. When Fayette County deputies arrived on the scene, they found 34-year-old Shane Rechkemmer near an excavator he had been operating.

Rechkemmer had been demolishing a free-standing silo when it collapsed and fell back onto the excavator. A co-worker helped Rechkemmer get out of the wreckage.

Read more here.