Convert, renovate or demolish – Either way, taxpayers will foot the bill.

Following the recent implosion of the Texas Stadium and the planned demolition of the Houston Astrodome, it appears that the great state of Texas has declared a moratorium on sporting stadia. Or has it?

No sooner had news of the planned demolition of the former home of the Houston Oilers hit the streets than two further options were thrown into the ring. The first is to convert and renovate the structure into a science and convention centre at a cost of around $588 million; the second is to simply convert it in a more basic fashion, reducing the bill to around $350 million. The third option is an outright demolition, the cost of which is estimated at $128 million.

Regardless of the outcome, it seems likely that taxpayers will be left to foot the bill. All the above options’ costs include the $40M which originated from a bond passed to make renovations while the Oilers still made use of the facility. Reliant officials say just removing the dome and replacing it with a simple field would still cost about $88M.

Read the full story here or watch the video below.

Company involved in double near-miss in Vancouver has record of safety violations.

The company responsible for a demolition that went dangerously wrong last week has been ordered to stop all work in Vancouver, and it’s not the first time the company has faced questions about safety.

Videos of the two walls collapsing were posted on YouTube, and the video of the first collapse has already reached more than 180,000 views. It is also one of the most widely viewed videos here on DemolitionNews.com.

The company responsible is Global Excavating and Demolition, based in Surrey and run by Karmjeet and Jagjeet Panesar. The company reportedly has a history with WorkSafe BC; in the past three years, it’s received six compliance orders, including one for an excavation.

Read more here.

UK contractor Keanes has appointed George Mackey to its board of directors.

Demolition veteran George Mackey, who was previously on the board of Wembley-based demolition specialist McGee, will play a crucial role in developing Keanes’ demolition business as the industry begins to emerge from recession, said managing director David Keane.

“George is very highly respected within the demolition industry where he’s known especially for his estimating skills. He’s worked on some major projects, including the demolition of the old Wembley Stadium,” Keane says. “Like all sectors of the construction industry, demolition took a nose-dive in late 2008. Everybody’s now working hard to win work and build the industry back up. We’re determined to ensure that we remain ahead of the game, and George has a central role in helping us do that”, he continued.

“Keanes has been in demolition for a long time and has a lot of satisfied customers. It is my job now to help build up this side of the business and bring in some new clients,” Mackey concludes. “I look forward to my new role; I’m working with an excellent team and I have every confidence that we can increase turnover in the demolition sector.”

85 year old man accused of firing at demolition crew.

Raymond F. Bryan of Springfield, Ohio was arrested on charges of felonious assault, inducing panic, discharging a firearm on or near prohibited premises and resisting arrest Friday 11 June, according to a police report.

Bryan fired four shots at employees of a demolition company around 4:10 p.m. at a home on the 1700 block of West High Street, according to the report. The report states Bryan yelled at the workers to “get out of my house” before firing shots that struck a wall at the house.

One of the members of the demolition crew was able to escape through a window while the other one distracted Bryan after he fired shots.

Read more here.

Developer to cooperate but apparently confused by what constitutes safe practice.

The owner of a Vancouver property where demolition went awry TWICE last Thursday says he is willing to fully cooperate with all parties involved to make sure work can safely resume on clearing two buildings at Helmcken Street and Hornby.

“I want to make sure everybody is happy before there is more work. It’s important we aren’t taking on more demolition until we understand it’s safe,” said developer James Schouw of James Schouw and Associates.

WorkSafeBC, which was notified by police after the incident occurred, has closed down the site pending an investigation, spokeswoman Donna Freeman said.

“Someone could have easily been killed; it’s quite serious,” she said, adding she hasn’t seen a similar situation before. “This is a first for me.”

A flag person narrowly escaped being crushed by two walls and a lamp post during the botched demolition when a wall collapsed onto the street.

A YouTube video, which included an aerial shot from a balcony and one from the street, showed a backhoe knocking the north wall of the building onto Helmcken, before the west wall collapsed onto Hornby about 10 minutes later. Schouw said the video looked worse than what actually happened.

“I think there may have been a perception that, ‘wow, there could have been a person there.’ but the traffic control people [were on site]. …I know the demolition contractor had traffic persons keeping people away from the danger zone,” he said. “As I understand the city doesn’t want to shut down streets for projects of that size. So generally the traffic people block people and traffic at certain times when there are hazardous maneouvres,” Schouw said.

Read more here.

Camera captures twin demolition accidents on Vancouver demolition site.

Canadian video cameras have captured a pair of near catastrophic wall collapses in Vancouver. The demolition occurred in the 1100 block of Hornby Street near Davie Street around 5:15 p.m. PT on Thursday.

Two videos of the demolition were posted on YouTube Thursday. One shows an excavator knocking over a two-storey concrete wall of the building, pushing it past the fence erected around the demolition site, with the debris narrowly missing at least one person and a car on the surrounding street.

A second video appears to show the excavator knocking a second wall into the street a short time later, taking a lamp post down with it.

The demolition was being conducted by Global Excavation and Demolition.

UK Caterpillar dealer shows its support for England team.

For the past week, cars up and down the UK have been sprouting Ss George’s Cross flags as the nation shows its support for the England team in the 2010 Word Cup that started in South Africa just a few moments ago. But few of those flags can compete with those on display at the headquarters of UK Caterpillar dealer Finning which is displaying a 20 foot flag in the body of a 777 off-highway dumptruck.

The company is also offering fans the chance to win one of 50 sets of Union Flagged CAT hats and safety glasses, simply by registering at Finning’s Lastability site by visiting www.lastability.com.

We admit, it’s not strictly demolition but it’s a great photo.

Chicago Tribune signals countdown to $1.0 billion nuclear power plant dismantling.

By November this year, Utah-based EnergySolutions will start work on the $1 billion dismantling and clean-up of the former Zio nuclear power plant 64 kilometres (40 miles) North of Chicago.

According to the Chicago Tribune newspaper, the countdown has begun to the contract on the 104 hectare (257 acre) site that will require the removal of around 14,000 cubic metres (500,000 cubic feet) of material – sufficient to fill 80 rail cars – including concrete walls, pipes, wiring, machinery, even desks and chairs. Much of it is contaminated with low-level radiation. Enough to fill roughly 80 rail cars, it will be transported to EnergySolutions’ site 80 miles west of Salt Lake City.

Read the full story here.

Just over a week after the EDA launched its high reach guidance, the NDA follows suit.

The National Demolition Association, in collaboration with the National Federation of Demolition Contractors in the United Kingdom, has produced a guide entitled “High Reach Demolition Machine Guidance Document” to outline recommended safe work practices for such machines designed to safely dismantle structures greater than three stories high.

The full-color, 14-page booklet was written to promote important discourse regarding the specification of work practices, the manufacture, supply, and use of the machines, and their transportation, loading, and unloading. The document was designed to be used as an aid in developing a work plan and engineering survey. (More details here).

The launch of the new publication comes as no surprise: the NDA and NFDC have been discussing this collaborative project for some time. There is, however, a certain irony to the timing of the launch, following just a week after the European Demolition Association unveiled its own guidance.

Even more interestingly, both the US and European guidance documents use as their starting point the UK guidance produced by the National Federation of Demolition Contractors, a document that is itself currently being revised.

Have Your Say: To give your opinion on whether the industry really needs THREE sets of high reach guidance notes, please click here to visit the Demolition News Forum.

Dutch demolition contractor unveils corporate rave video.

Aside from complaints, the biggest portion of our mail inbox here at Demolition News Towers is taken up by corporate videos from demolition contractors and equipment suppliers, keen to sell their products and services through our online channel.

With a few notable exceptions, these are generally consigned to File 13 (otherwise known as the recycling bin) but then, every once in a while, one comes along that is woerthy of sharing. And this new one from Vlasman Demolition of the Netherlands is a fine example.

Yes, the videography is not too dissimilar from others of its ilk and, night-time implosion aside, there’s very little visually that we haven’t all seen before. But I ask you this: When was the last time you watched a demolition video and found yourself tapping your toes to the soundtrack?

Enjoy.