New listing, renewed offer…

September 4, 2009 General, News

Acoustics specialists Campbell Associates is latest to sign up on Business Directory.

Campbell Associates has become the latest company to join our fast-growing Business Directory. The acoustics specialist company behind the CadnaA sound prediction and monitoring software has enjoyed an extremely high profile recently with appearances on teh Institute of Demolition Engineers’ Roadshow, in the pages of Demolition & Dismantling, and here on Demolition News.

To celebrate joining the Business Directory, the company has extended the special offer on its CadnaA system. Demolition News readers will continue to qualify for a 30% discount on the system, as detailed here.

Demolition News is going Transatlantic…!

September 3, 2009 General, Publications

Demolition News invited to be a guest blogger on Construction Equipment.

Following the extraordinary take up by UK and then European demolition professionals, Demolition News has been invited to join an elite band of guest bloggers on the world’s largest and most widely-read construction magazine, Construction Equipment.

In a new blog, which has the working title of Demolition Digest, we will be taking a look at the latest developments in the demolition world with a particular emphasis on machines and equipment. This new blog, which will contain content created exclusively for Construction Equipment, will utilise our usual mix of words, photos, audio and video content to bring you up-to-speed with the latest technological developments in this exciting market area. It is expected to go live within the next two weeks.

“I am delighted to have been given this superb opportunity to extend the reach of our coverage to the world’s largest demolition market, the USA,” says Demolition News founder Mark Anthony. “Construction Equipment is a magazine that I have admired from afar for more years than I care to remember. And the machine evaluations conducted by Walt Moore and Larry Stewart were an inspiration to me when I returned to Plant Managers Journal as editor a few years ago. To be invited to work alongside these guys is like being asked by West Ham to play alongside Bobby Moore!”

Mark is keen to point out that Demolition Digest will not detract from Demolition News. In fact, he believes the opposite is true. “Traditionally, our strongest links have been with the contractors and manufacturers serving the UK and European markets, and that will continue here on Demolition News,” he adds. “But we’re seeing increasing levels of interest and – more excitingly – input from contractors and suppliers from North America. At a time when the European Demolition Association, the UK’s National Federation of Demolition Contractors and the US’s National Demolition Association are calling for a unified, global sharing of information, I believe that Demolition News and Demolition Digest are ideally placed to help meet that need.”

Demolition Professional A.K.A….

September 2, 2009 Entertainment, General

What do demolition men do when they hang up their hard hats at the end of the day.

We recently interviewed Rob Collard, a UK demolition contractor who regularly replaces one hazardous business with another by racing in the British Touring Car Championships. Now finding someone with a passion for both demolition equipment and fast cars is hardly unusual; but it set us thinking: what do other demolition professionals do with their spare time?

Are there any out there that hang up their hard hat at the end of each working day and put on a chef’s toque to cook up some cordon bleu cuisine? Are there any that swap safety boots for soccer boots? Does anyone balance their ability to destroy buildings with a love for architecture?

We’d love to hear from you with your surprising hobbies and away-from-work activities. Please use the comments tab below.

Let’s hope this never catches on here…

September 2, 2009 General

As low-bidding debate continues, the spectre of reverse auctions looms over the demolition business.

For the past few weeks, Demolition News has dedicated page after page of coverage to the near-suicidal bidding war that is raging throughout the US demolition industry (and which will almost certainly be mirrored this side of the pond).

But while the damage of this “work at any price” approach is entirely self-inflicted, a new danger now looms large on the horizon from clients and developers eager to squeeze every last ounce of profit from the demolition profession’s coffers.

That threat comes in the shape of reverse auction bidding (or a race to the bottom as it should more properly be known). In a reverse online auction, invited contractors and/or subcontractors are given a password to a dedicated Web site created to handle the scheduled auction. At the appointed time, competing contractors log on and list their prices. If a competitor has already placed a lower bid, participants can either back out of the auction altogether or place an even lower bid.

The auctions generally allow competing companies time – often just minutes — after each bid to counter with a lower price. After a period of no bidding activity, the auction is closed and the lowest bid becomes binding.

At a time when US contractors have seemingly switched tried and tested pricing methods and common sense for short-termism, the reverse auction is a matter that should be fought against by all concerned.

And I sincerely hope that this is one industry development that never makes it across the pond!

Click here for further details.

Our thanks to Robert Kullinski for bringing this to our attention.

Bobcat consolidation…

September 2, 2009 Equipment, General

Skid steer market leader Bobcat returns to its roots with anti-recession consolidation.

US magazine Construction Equipment reports that Bobcat is transferring all North American machinery production to its original manufacturing facility in Gwinner, North Dakota, a move that will result in discontinuing production at Bobcat’s Bismarck plant by the end of 2009.

Click here for the full story.

Health fears over demolition at proposed Olympic Village…

September 2, 2009 General, News

Chicago waits with bated breath to find out if it has been selected as the host of the 2016 Olympic Games. But airborne dust has already sparked health concerns.

With demolition work in preparation for the London 2012 Games still taking place just a few miles from my front door, it’s easy to forget that the forward-planning of these vast, global events never stops. And so on 2 October, Chicago, along with a whole host of rival cities, will wait to learn if they have been selected to host the 2016 Games.

But even though Chicago doesn’t yet know the outcome, demolition works that would be associated with a successful bid have already caused health concerns for the city’s residents, according to Chicago Talks.

Residents believe that some preparatory works have already created a degree of airborne dust which is causing breathing problems among asthmatics. “I already feel the effects. There’s clearly dust if nothing else,” says local resident Terry Clark. “I’m very upset and distressed. If I’m feeling like this now and they haven’t even started.”

Click here for the full story.

The building that refuses to die…

September 2, 2009 General

The long-awaited demolition of New York’s Deutsche Bank building is delayed again.

In just over a week, the world will once again remember the world-changing events of 11 September 2001 and the global focus will once again be on New York and Manhattan.

In typical fashion, New Yorkers regrouped themselves after that terrible day. And with reconstruction works at Ground Zero now well underway, a sense of normality is returning to the site of the world’s worst ever peace time atrocity.

But eight years on, the nearby Deutsche Bank building that was damaged during the 9/11 attack and again two years ago by fire, stands as a constant reminder of that fateful day. And now it appears that New Yorkers will have to endure the presence of this “gigantic wound” (once described by Fortune Magazine as the Tombstone at Ground Zero) for even longer after deconstruction contractor Bovis Lend Lease announced that demolition would take even longer than anticipated.

Click here to read the full story.

And still the low bids flow…

September 2, 2009 General

The demolition of Philadelphia prison has become the latest to follow the US’ low bid trend.

I am becoming almost as tired writing about this as I am sure you are reading about it. But another day has brought another suicidally low winning bid for a contract to demolish the Riverfront Prison in Camden, New Jersey.

However, this one is even more worthy of reporting, partly for the sheer magnitude of the difference between local officials’ estimates and the winning bid price, but also because the winning bid came not from a fly-by-night landscaping contractor with a sideline in demolition but from one of the world’s biggest demolition companies; Brandenburg Industrial Service Co.

Philly.com reports that local client Delaware River Port Authority had set aside some $6 million for the demolition works. Brandenburg was the lowest of the 23 bids (yes 23) received at just $1.25 million. Even the highest bid, from local contractor W. Hargrove Demolition of Camden came inside the original estimate by $1.1 million.

This is just the latest example of the US demolition industry’s “race to the bottom” which has seen similarly low bid-to-estimate prices on contracts including the Executive Inn in Kentucky, the Texas Stadium in Dallas and yesterday’s wastewater treatment plant in Florida.

Sadly, I am not privvy to the inner machinations of the National Demolition Association. But surely the time has come for the NDA to take a stand and to advise its members of the perils of this seemingly suicidal course of action.

Explosion rocks Texas demolition company…

September 2, 2009 General, News

A demolition worker has been severely burned in a fire at Robles Demolition.

Several fire crews were last night working to contain a fire caused when routine welding or hot cutting works at a demolition company’s headquarters resulted in an explosion that left one worker severely burned.

Initial reports suggest that the worker set off a series of explosions that nearly destroyed the company. The man had to be airlifted to the hospital shortly after 11:00 a.m. when the explosions tore through the Robles Demolition company.

Read further details and see a video of the resulting fire here.

How long can this madness go on…

September 1, 2009 General, News

Yet another tale of suicidal bid pricing from the US; this time a wastewater plant in Palm City.

We are beginning to suspect that someone has circulated a memo to US demolition contractors that advises them to abandon all common sense and business acumen during the current recession, and merely submit bid prices that verge on lunacy.

What other explanation can there be when a contract to demolish a wastewater plant (and is it only me that’s intrigued by the fact that the spokesman is a Mr J. Christ?) in Palm City, Florida with an estimated value of $200,000 has been won with a bid of just $60,000.

It’s true that President Obama’s much-vaunted stimulus package has yet to bear fruit among the demolition fraternity.   Buch such suicidal pricing is surely the worst kind of short-termism.   And it is likely that the low prices set to win much-needed work today will be expected by clients long after the cloud of recession has lifted.