Video – It’s MailTime again…

Your chance to win a HEAP of Epiroc merchandise.

It is MailTime again and it’s your chance to earn yourself a big box of Epiroc-branded goodies.

Entering couldn’t be easier. Just watch the exclusive video below, answer the VERY simple question contained within and send your answer to manthony@markanthonypublicity.co.uk.

We will put all the correct answers into an Eprioc-branded hat and the winner will be drawn at random.

Please note that this competition closes on 25 June 2018. So get watching.

Recruitment made simple…

We have made it easier (and cheaper) for you to find demolition workers.

Due to (possibly unfounded) concerns over the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) we took the decision to take our Demolition-Jobs.co.uk website offline. In fact, it is STILL offline. But that doesn’t mean we can’t help you find the staff you’re looking for.

Rather than risking putting the site back online and incurring the wrath of the data protection police, we will now be running recruitment advertising on DemolitionNews.com, all clearly marked with our new livery and logo.

We operate a dedicated (and GDPR-compliant) database of UK demolition workers across a variety of roles and with a variety of qualifications and experience levels that are either seeking employment or who have expressed an interest in changing companies or roles.

Recruitment ads placed with DemolitionNews.com will appear – of course – on the DemolitionNews website. But they will also be featured in the next available edition of This Week in Demolition which is sent to our entire readership each Monday morning. Furthermore, it will appear on our Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages for even greater exposure.

So if you need staff, we’ve made it as easy as possible for you. And we have made it cost-effective too. You can even pay online to receive a 20% discount.

To find out more, just CLICK THIS LINK.

Video – Another bridge blasted…

Controlled implosion signals start of new Kansas City bridge.

The westbound I-70 Lewis and Clark Viaduct bridge over the Kansas River in Kansas City was dropped at about 8:30 am local time on Saturday.

The controlled implosion is part of a long-term construction project to demolish and rebuild the bridge.

TRD responds to bridge collision…

Total Reclaims takes to Facebook to apologise to people of Nottingham.

Nottingham-based Total Reclaims Demolition has issued a public apology for and explanation of an incident yesterday in which a Liebherr excavator being carried on a low loader struck a bridge, causing severe delays for local commuters.

The statement, which was posted on the company’s Facebook page, is as follows:

We would like to let the public know exactly what we are doing to get traffic back up and running, after a low loader carrying one of our demolition rigs struck a bridge in Nottingham this morning.

The demolition rig had been travelling between two of our sites in Nottingham where we are currently carrying out demolition works, when the arm struck the bridge, causing it to dismount the lorry.

Thankfully no injuries have been reported, and we are now in the process of cleaning up the debris left behind. Our own teams are on site working as quickly as they can to minimise the disruption to other road users, and we are helping both the Police and Highways Agency with their enquiries.

We would like to take this opportunity to apologise for any inconvenience caused to other road users, and to reassure the public that we are doing our very best to put this right.

Video – Down at last…

Bridge blast delayed by bad weather finally completed.

An Iconic structure has come crashing down in the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Built in the early 1920s, this large three span concrete bridge has been an important part of local commuters.

The two outer spans were removed in April by way of heavy equipment. The final piece was take down by explosion.

Digger delays Nottingham road…

Road brought to standstill as excavator hits bridge while being transported.

The ring road near Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham was closed in both directions for two hours to remove a stricken digger.

A low-loader carrying the machine hit a bridge on the A6514 Middleton Boulevard at around 8.20 am this morning.

Although it is difficult to judge from the photo, the video (below) suggests that the incident involved local company Total Reclaims Demolition.

“After the road has been cleared the surface will be assessed and repaired if necessary,” says a Nottingham City Council spokeswoman.

Dark day for US demolition…

Two separate incidents; three workers killed.

Yesterday will go down as one of the worst in recent US demolition history. In the space of 24 hours, the industry claimed three lives in two separate and deadly incidents.

Two workers were killed after falling down an elevator shaft in downtown St. Louis. The accident occurred inside the Old Shoe Company building in the 1500 block of Washington Avenue around 11:15 am local time.

City of St. Louis Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards told reporters at the scene the victims were cutting pipe when the cable snapped and they fell down six floors in the elevator shaft. They were reportedly inside a basket that was connected to a safety cable when the incident occurred.

The building was still in the demolition phase of a $25 million renovation project to be converted into a hotel by Fe Equus, a Milwaukee based development company.

Workers with World Wrecking, a subcontractor for Gencorp Services that works on demolition and asbestos abate, were involved in the accidents. OSHA was called to the project site for a complaint involving Gencorp in 2013, the agency said.

IN a separate incident, a demolition worker was killed following a building collapse of a row home in the Brewerytown section of Philadelphia on Monday morning.

The fire department was called out to a building collapse around 10:50 a.m. for reports of two people trapped. Demolition crews from Gama wrecking were working on the building when it came down.

Police say two contractors were working on the building when the rear of the property collapsed, trapping them. One person was able to escape while the other, a 60-year-old man, was trapped under the rubble. He was pronounced dead shortly after 11 a.m.

The family identified the victim as 59-year-old Harvey Lee Figgs. His family had just celebrated his birthday on Sunday.

Comment – Putting the industry on notice…

No more Mr Nice Guy – We will name and shame the industry’s late-payers.

Like a demolition man that has to pay his staff, his chosen equipment hirer, his fuel supplier and his insurance company in order to work, I have a stack of people that I need to pay long before I can even consider taking my cut.

When money is coming in slowly, in dribs and drabs or – worse still – late, slowly AND in dribs and drabs, you have no choice but to juggle; to temporarily rob Peter to pay Paul.
You do so having been assured by one or more of your debtors that they will pay on a certain day and date that they have agreed.

We had precisely that assurance from a number of advertisers two weeks ago, each of which promised to pay on the Friday before the UK shut down for a Bank Holiday long weekend.

And do you know how many of those companies kept their promise? None. Not a single one. For all the friendships and alliances we have within the industry; for all the fair play schemes and initiatives operating across the sector, we were left high and dry.

A week on, and we’re still waiting on ALL of them.

More than a dozen big name and supposedly reputable companies, each of them with a turnover hundreds of times larger than ours and many of which are supposedly governed by an industry Code of Practice, had simply lied to us.

Although it varies from one company to another, the primary reason that companies advertise on DemolitionNews.com or in the pages of the Demolition magazine is because we have established an unrivalled reach and market penetration. Ours is the only magazine that is received by every single demolition company in the UK. Our magazine has a global reach and is read in almost 40 countries around the world. And it has achieved all that by providing those readers with an honest, independent and warts-and-all view of this industry of ours.

Advertisers pay us to access our audience in order that they might then sell them something. Given all of that, you would think that those companies might want to safeguard their reputation with the world’s largest demolition industry publication. You’d think they would want to ingratiate themselves with a team that – at the click of a mouse – can reach pretty much the entire sector in which they earn a living. Above all, you’d think they’d be keen to keep sweet an editor with a global reach, a big mouth and a hair trigger. Yet, they don’t.

Maybe they believe their reputation is bullet-proof, that it couldn’t be damaged by a disgruntled magazine editor. Maybe they’re not too bothered about how the rest of the world views them. Maybe they believe that my bite is worse than my bark; that I wouldn’t dare call out a company way bigger than my own.

And historically, they would have been right. But not any more.

I am done with waiting endlessly to be paid. I am done with providing a product and a service and not being paid for it in a timely fashion. I am done with being lied to. I am done with companies falling over themselves to access our audience while having no intention of paying to do so.

So, starting today, I will be naming and shaming those that abuse our payment terms.

I will name and shame them here on DemolitionNews.com, in the Demolition magazine, on Demolition TV, on the Demolition News Radio podcast, and across our various social media platforms. I will shout their names from the industry’s rooftops.

I know what you’re thinking. That’s commercial suicide, right. But what have I got to lose when so many companies have no intention of paying for the products or services we have provided anyway?

So if you’re a company that currently owes us for advertising or sponsorship and which wants to safeguard its reputation within the industry, now would be a good time to settle your bills.

You’ve been warned.

This article is an extract from the latest episode of the Demolition News Rsdio podcast, which you can hear here.

Students blown away…

World-renowned explosives expert lends expertise to degree course.

University of Wolverhampton Demolition degree students were blown away by a guest speaker recently.

Blow-down explosives expert, Dick Green, was a visiting lecturer at the City Campus in Wolverhampton recently to talk to the Master’s degree Architecture and Built Environment students about the use of explosives in the demolition and deconstruction of buildings.

Accredited by the Institute of Demolition Engineers (IDE), the Demolition degree course, the first of its kind in Europe, has been designed in conjunction with industry specialists and is being delivered by both academics and demolition sector experts.

Dick Green, Managing Director and Explosives Engineer at Index Industrial Explosive Engineers Ltd, was a commissioned officer in the army for 25 years, working with explosives before joining a leading UK explosives demolition company as senior explosives engineer and project manager.

He has planned and supervised explosive demolition projects across the world including India, Asia, Scandinavia, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and the UK. He also presents and lectures on a variety of explosive related topics to military and civilian organisations and has demolished buildings for Hollywood movies and television.

Dick said: “It’s important on a course like this that people learn about explosives because the type of people studying will, at some point in their career, will be involved in explosives demolition. By giving the students insights into explosives and how they work, this will enhance their capability and their career.”

Davinder Singh Reehal, Technical Director at national demolition company, John F Hunt Ltd, said: “The industry is moving along all the time, and whilst it’s great to get the academic perspective, it’s good to bring professionals in to explore new ideas, new skills, new methodologies and it’s good to get that live input.”

Fined for asbestos failings…

Prosecution last month hands down negligible penalty.

A demolition company based in Ryde on the Isle of Wight and its director have been fined for storing asbestos illegally at Rosemary Copse Farm.

Ryde Demolition Company Ltd was fined £12,500 with a victim surcharge of £170 and costs of £4,000, while its director, Neil Harrison, was also fined £1,108 for storing asbestos waste without a waste permit and failing to comply with the hazardous waste regulations.

Harrison admitted the charges at the Isle of Wight Magistrates’ Court, Newport.

The Environment Agency received a report in April 2017 that Ryde Demolition Company Ltd were storing asbestos in a large container skip.

Environment Agency officers attended the site and Mr Harrison admitted he had been transporting and depositing asbestos waste at Rosemary Copse Farm. He stored the waste at the farm until the asbestos container was full and then he would remove it to the mainland.

The company also admitted to not using consignment notes correctly and for failing to submit consignee returns for the movement of the hazardous waste.

Richard O’Callaghan, environment manager at the Environment Agency, said: “Mr Harrison’s actions showed a blatant disregard for the environment. We have previously prosecuted Mr Harrison for a similar offence in December 2013. Asbestos is a hazardous waste and needs to be transported and stored correctly. In cases like this we have no hesitation in prosecuting those involved.”

“To ensure the right waste gets to the right place, we encourage the public and businesses to check that their waste carrier is registered on Gov.UK. If you are getting rid of any hazardous waste, including asbestos you should receive a ‘consignment note’ that tracks the waste. If your waste carrier is not registered, then you must use one that is.”