Unexpected demolition of 300+ buildings leaves three dead from shock in Accra.

Three people are reported to have died at Kwabenya, in the Ghanaian capital Accra, following last Saturday’s demolition exercise on the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission land, which affected about 300 buildings, according to Percy Nii Addy, a local representative.

The deceased people, whose names are yet to be established, are said to have died from shock, after witnessing their properties and possessions demolished in an exercise undertaken by authorities of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), under the supervision of fully armed police and military personnel, numbering close to 200.

Read the full story here.

Construction News publishes its Top 11 demolition contractors table.

UK trade magazine has published details of the Top 11 (why 11 is a mystery) UK demolition contractors by turnover.

There are no huge surprises – Keltbray, McGee and Erith stealing the top three positions – but what is interesting is that the leading six companies all enjoyed a significant growth in turnover over the previous year, even though most of the accounts were submitted after the current recession took hold.

To read the full table, please click here.

Aerial footage of smokestack implosion from Lawrence earlier today.

A pair of 100-year old chimneys were dropped by explosives in Boston just a few minutes ago.

You can check out the raw TV footage by clicking here or you can check out the amateur footage below:

Our weekly news round-up is about to get bigger…and better.

For the past few months, we have been producing This Week in Demolition, a weekly email round-up of all the major news covered by Demolition News during the preceding seven days.

It has proved extremely popular. Indeed, according to our traffic statistics, its arrival on a Monday regularly doubles daily readership levels on the website.

So we’re upping our game.

First of all, future bulletins will be more detailed and contain far more links than previous editions, providing recipients with a simple, single click to the industry news of their choosing.

In addition, we are delighted to announce that for the next 12 month, the This Week in Demolition bulletins will be exclusively sponsored by world-leading crushing and screening equipment supplier, Sandvik.

So if you don’t currently receive a weekly email from us, please use the Sign Up For Newsletter area to the right to add you name and email address details. And if you think any of your friends, colleagues or customers would benefit from receiving this information, please ask them to sign up too.

Demolition work starts at Freedlander department store in Wooster, Ohio.

For 130 years, it held up against the worst Mother Nature could throw at it. It survived a complete revamping of its famous facade. It even withstood thousands of bargain-crazed shoppers year after year.

But the former Freedlander’s Department Store building in downtown Wooster won’t survive any longer. Crews from Cleveland-based B&B Wrecking spent Wednesday putting the final pieces of fencing around the structure, and anticipate beginning dismantling today.

Mike Sigg, director of administration, says the facility was in worse shape than initially thought. “There’s a lot of termite damage all over the building,” Sigg said. “I know (environmental remediation crews) ran into termites while they were working on the building in the floor joist. Ted (Bogner) told us his dad actually replaced the floor joists years ago in there because of termite damage. … At this point, we’re anxious to see it come down. We’ll feel a lot better when it’s on the ground.”

Read the full story here.

Video that nicely captures the post-blast shockwave.

Although some of the ramblings here might suggest otherwise, I am actually a trained journalist. I have been doing this stuff for the past quarter century, honing my skills and perfecting my art.

But, every once in a while, I am reminded that sometimes (just sometimes mind) a situation can be summed up in just one or two words. Enjoy:

30-storey West Palm Beach tower implosion on hold over excessive insurance demands.

The explosive demolition of a 30-storey condominium building in West Palm Beach has been thrown into turmoil after city officials demanded $50 million of insurance cover.

You can read the full account of the story here or you can read our own take on how we imagine the conversation between city and contractor went, below:

City Official: OK, so we’ve read through your plans and that all looks to be in order.
Contractor: Good. When can we start.
City Official: Whoa, hold on there fellah. There’s a few things we need to get straight first.
Contractor: OK
City Official: First, you’ve done this kind of work before right?
Contractor: Absolutely. Hundreds of times.
City Official: So you know we’re going to need detailed method statements, risk assessments. All that kind of thing?
Contractor: Sure, no problem.
City Official: Good. We also have a few very specific requirements for this project too.
Contractor: OK. Shoot.
City Official: Well, we think circular exclusiion zones are just so 80s. So we’d like a trapezoidal exclusion zone. We reckon that would look real pretty from the air.
Contractor: Erm, OK.
City Official: And this here condo is such an eyesore and we’re keen that we shouldn’t replace one eyesore with another. So we’d like you to ensure that what we’re left with isn’t so much rubble…more pixie dust.
Contractor: Hmmm…
City Official: In fact, while you’re about it, we’d really like this entire job to be as environmentally sensitive as possible. So we’d prefer it if you didn’t use traditional explosives and used tiny heart-shaped firecrackers made from hummingbird tears instead.
Contractor: ???
City Official: Oh, and one last thing. You’re going to need $50 million of insurance cover.
Contractor: ARE YOU ON CRACK!!??

Work is underway to demolish Arizona’s Lumberjack Stadium.

It is easy to be critical of local newspaper coverage of demolition contracts (and we have certainly been critical in the past) but we do accept that they are writing for a different and local audience.

While readers of the Arizona Daily Sun were primarily interested in the fact that the Lumberjack Stadium is coming down to make way for a new health centre, we were far more intrigued by the reason given by a local demolition contractor not submitting a bid.

Todd Sleeper, the owner of Flagstaff-based Eagle Mountain Construction, said his company could have done the work. He said he discussed the demolition contract with Mortenson Construction, but ultimately decided against submitting a formal bid.

The strict requirements to meet the green building codes for the Health and Learning Center, he said, made it difficult for him to place a competitive bid. One stipulation, Sleeper said, would have required his crews to separate out the steel from the rubble of the former stadium.

Segregating steel from demolition arisings? What will they think of next.

Read the full story here.

CDI launches forum website to keep South Padre Island residents informed.

Controlled Demolition Inc. (CDI) together with the Town of South Padre Island and Ocean Tower LP has launched a question and answer section on the town’s web site to provide information to the public regarding the upcoming demolition of Ocean Tower. The forum is located at www.townspi.com.

Residents of South Padre Island have shown a great deal of interest in the scheduled implosion of the ill-fated Ocean Tower north of the city limits.

Construction of the high-rise condominium was halted when the building began to tilt due to uneven settling of its foundation. After months of study, it was decided the building project could not be completed.

Read the full story here.

Phase One of Fairgrounds revitalization project kicks off in Memphis.

The City of Memphis has announced a groundbreaking for a $175 million, four-phase revitalization project at the Mid-South Fairgrounds. The overall project is expected to take four years, according to a city release.

Robert Lipscomb, who has been involved with the Fairgrounds Reuse Committee since 2004, said this is the first phase of the project. “It’s demolition and cleaning up the old Libertyland site, which is all the council has approved,” he says. “It’s just a blight removal.”

The groundbreaking will mark phase one, which involves demolition of properties formerly used by the Mid-South Fair and planting of grass in the area. This $2 million phase is expected to be complete by April 2010.