Video – Damp squib Down Under…

May 30, 2018 implosion, Video

Blast fails to drop part of power station.

For more than three hours local people had waited, hands shoved deep into jacket pockets against a biting wind, clamouring for the best vantage points to witness the much-hyped “controlled” explosion that promised to level the old Alcoa power plant in Anglesea, Australia.

About half an hour after midday local time, a series of sirens rose above the rustle of swaying trees. A spark exploded inside the building as two steel structures on either side of the plant crumbled to the ground in a thunderous collapse.

But the reward for patience was poor for anyone hoping to witness a massive six-storey building blasted out of existence. Most of the building remained upstanding.

Read more here, or view the video below:

Comment – A dangerous precedent…

May 30, 2018 Accident, Comment, Prosecution

Massive fine could be merely the tip of the iceberg.

Yesterday’s story about the monumental fine handed down to Mick George Ltd gained traction the moment I hit the upload button. In its first hour online, the story passed the 100 reads, 500 reads and 1,000 reads milestones faster than any other story this year. It has since gone on to be our most-read story of the year so far.

I would love to say that this was due to my journalistic excellence and my finely crafted prose. But I merely reported the Health and Safety Executive’s findings. The truth is that this story took off because everyone in the UK demolition industry knows precisely what this means.

The UK legal system works on the basis of precedent; a “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander” system that ensures that the way in which a prosecution is handled today is based – more or less – on the way a prosecution was handled yesterday.

That being the case, the handing down of a £566,000 fine for what, in the grand scheme of things, was a relatively minor safety misdemeanour should serve as a warning to any company that is currently awaiting their day in court over a health and safety-related issue. (And before the health and safety police and keyboard warriors start filling up my email inbox with messages about the potential dangers of overhead power lines, I know. But the fact remains, no-one got hurt!)

Personally, I question not only the magnitude of the fine but also the reasoning behind it. Were the Health and Safety Executive seeking to make an example of Mick George Ltd and, if so, why? To the best of my knowledge, the company has a safety track record that is no better and no worse than that of its competitors; and as far as I am aware there has not been a recent spate of overhead power line strikes.

I could understand the size of the fine if the tipper driver involved had been hurt in some way. But he wasn’t; and neither was anyone else.

In truth, the reasoning behind such a landmark fine doesn’t really matter to anyone other than Mick George Ltd who – in my opinion, at least – appear to have been grossly mistreated and over-penalised.

What does matter for the wider UK demolition community is that there is now a precedent. There is now an entry in a legal text book that says it’s absolutely dandy to fine a company half a million quid over an incident in which no-one was hurt. Lord alone knows what that means for incidents in which workers or pedestrians WERE hurt.

Either way, if your company is facing a day in court over a prior health and safety incident (and the Mick George Ltd incident dates back to March 2016) then the message is very simple:

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Mick George Ltd hit with hefty fine…

May 29, 2018 Accident, Audio, Prosecution

Firm fined after tipper came into contact with overhead power lines.

Northampton Crown Court heard that on 9 March 2016 a driver employed by Mick George Ltd was emptying a load of soil from his tipper vehicle at a site in Northampton. Mick George Ltd had already identified the need for Permanent Protection Structures (goalposts) but after an initial delay only one was installed. In order to empty the final remains of the load from his vehicle, the driver pulled forward with the body raised and the vehicle touched, or came close to touching, the 33KVoverhead power lines (OPL’s). The tipper vehicle suffered minor damage but the driver was unhurt.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) showed that Mick George Ltd should have assessed the risks from OPL’s more rigorously and realised its system of work was inadequate to reduce the risk of tipper vehicles striking an OPL.

Mick George Ltd of Lancaster Way, Huntingdon, pleaded guilty to a breach of Regulation 25(3) of Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM). The company was fined £566,670 and ordered to pay costs of £9,000.

HSE inspector Stuart Parry, speaking after the sentencing said:

”Every year in the UK, two people are killed and many more injured when mechanical plant and machinery comes into contact or close proximity to OPL’s. This was a very serious incident and it is fortunate nobody was injured as a result.

“A suitable and sufficient assessment would have identified the need to contact the Distribution Network Operator, Western Power, to request the OPL’s were diverted underground prior to the commencement of construction. If this was not reasonably practicable, Mick George Ltd should have erected goalposts either side of the OPL’s to warn drivers about the OPL’s. “

You can hear our take on this seemingly disproportionate fine in this exclusive episode of Demolition News Radio.

Video – Explosive height reduction…

May 28, 2018 implosion, Video

Smokestack shrinks slightly, but refuses to fall.

An old Duquesne Light smokestack in Crescent Township was supposed to come down Saturday, but instead of collapsing, it just got a little shorter.

After a loud boom and a thick cloud of dust, the old smokestack was shorter, but still standing.

“Nothing. It went boom, and that was it. It didn’t even fall,” said local resident Chris Torreance. “It dropped probably 10, 15, 20 feet, maybe. Just enough where you could see, but… just a bunch of smoke.”

Advantage Blasting And Demolition is handling the job. It’s believed the problem was a back wall of the structure.

Video Exclusive – Return of the Scrap Kings…

May 28, 2018 General

One of the best demolition shows on TV is coming back.

Production is underway on the second series of the popular Scrap Kings TV Series. The first series earned industry plaudits for realism and the fact that it captured some of the behind-the-scenes banter that marks the UK demolition industry as unique.

That first series comprised eight episodes and included contributions from the likes of Howard Stott Demolition, R. Collard Ltd and Squibb Group. That series proved so popular with TV audiences that 20 episodes have been commissioned for the show’s second outing; and the show’s producers are currently in the lookout for large-scale, interesting and unusual projects to follow and film over the summer months.

In this exclusive video, we visit the show’s producer to find out what makes demolition so endlessly fascinating to TV audiences; and to see what they have planned for the much-anticipated second series.

Video Exclusive – Pier into the past…

May 28, 2018 General, Video

Our cameras were there to capture the sensitive dismantling of Colwyn Bay’s famous pier.

J. Freeley Ltd is nearing completion of the sensitive dismantling of the historic Colwyn Bay pier that was irreparably damaged in storms last February.

The Welsh Government gave Conwy County Borough Council the green light to dismantle the remains of the damaged structure that had closed some ten years prior to the storms.

It is hoped a shortened pier will be developed to replace the original site in the future.

Inspirational result…

May 25, 2018 News

AR Demolition named among “1,000 companies to inspire Britain”.

AR Demolition been named in a prestigious report celebrating the UK’s fastest-growing and most dynamic small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

The ‘1000 Companies To Inspire Britain’ report is released annually by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and 2018 is the fifth year it has been published.

To qualify this year, companies had to have revenue of between £6 million and £250 million, be operating for at least three years and be among the fastest-growing in their industry sector.

Calculations were weighted to favour latest-year growth and any company with more than 20 per cent deterioration in net assets over the past three years was excluded.

With growth at AR Demolition escalating turnover to £16 million in 2017, managing director Richard Dolman said he was proud for his company to be included.

“It’s a great feather in the cap for the company and a real fillip for all at AR Demolition to see us included in such a prestigious list. We’ve worked hard over the past few years to set ourselves apart from our competition, creating something different from the typical demolition company and trying to build a business for the future. So it’s great to see that being officially marked by those outside the business,” Dolman says. “Turnover this year is looking to be at record levels for us and we’ll know more on that soon. In the meantime, we also have some exciting initiatives in the pipeline, as well as some significant investments, which will further develop the foundation for our future.”

AR Demolition was congratulated for its appearance in the report by David Tredinnick, MP for Bosworth, who visited the company in 2016 and said he was delighted to see evidence of its progress since then. “It is fantastic news that AR Demolition, a local company and employer, has been included on the LSEG’s flagship Companies to Inspire Britain list. “AR Demolition is an innovative company and it has been a pleasure to visit them in the past and see at first hand their approach to developing young people’s skills through apprenticeships,” Tredinnick concludes. “I congratulate AR Demolition on this prestigious achievement and it is really beneficial for the region to have such inspirational, dynamic and growing companies in our area.”

Video – Ignore the commentary…

May 25, 2018 Equipment, Video

DSM’s redrawing of the Grimsby skyline continues.

First rule of journalism – When you’re reporting on a company, try to the their name right, particularly if it only comprises three letters!

That said, while the voice-over appears to have been read (not too well) from this local newspaper report, the footage of DSM’s might Hitachi EX1200 is actually very good:

Bridge demolition delayed by barge…

May 24, 2018 Bridge

Dismantling of Johnson St. Bridge postponed until June.

Work on the old Johnson Street Bridge in Victoria, Vancouver Island has been pushed back until June.

The Dynamic Beast crane barge was supposed to return to Victoria’s Inner Harbour in mid-May to remove the old blue steel.

The project manager Jonathan Huggett says changes had to be made to the schedule because the crane is in high demand. It’s now scheduled to arrive in the capital city on June 8th and will work that weekend to remove four pieces of steel, including the counterweight truss, the tower truss as well as the east and west span.

According to Huggett, the dynamic beast could arrive on June 7th if it completes its other project early.

This week crews will saw and cut the concrete deck off the east side approach and that will take about two weeks.

Read more here.

Giving ex-offenders a (prison) break…

May 24, 2018 News

Businesses urged to give ex-offenders a ‘leg up’ by employing them.

Businesses are to be offered financial incentives if they employ ex-offenders under ambitious new plans being unveiled by the justice secretary.

According to a report from Sky News, the inmate education and employment strategy will give individual prison governors full autonomy to tailor their programmes to meet the needs of employers in their local area.

Prison officers have voiced concerns that recent staffing cuts will make it extremely difficult to supervise the programme in some jails.

At the Standford Hill prison in Kent, the prison governor James Padley has determined that construction work is one of the main areas crying out for new recruits.

The inmates at Standford Hill are put through an intensive course, giving them certified qualifications to enter that work sector.

“If you give a man employment, you give him the ability to support himself, to clean himself, to look after his family,” adley says. “But you also give him self-esteem and you make him part of the society that he’s been away from.”

You can read the full report here.