Illness forces changes to IDE Roadshow event in Bristol.
The forthcoming IDE Roadshow in Bristol has been hit by the withdrawal, owing to ill health, of a number of keynote speakers which has forced the IDE to quickly rethink the event and make changes to the itinerary and pricing structure.
Get the full story here.
Kees de Groot gave a fascinating insight into dust control measures and legislation in Holland.
As always, the European Demolition Association threw up some unexpected gems among its presentations. On the face of it, Kees de Groot’s speech on the issue of dust reduction could have been painfully dull and overly technical. Instead, it showed how the newly-formed Dutch demolition association Veras is harnessing the latest dust suppression technology and influencing Government policy.
The resulting video has been produced in two parts:
Part 1
Part 2
The EDA Conference in Nice was a great success, as this exclusive video shows.
The European Demolition Association hosted its latest conference in Nice on France’s famous Coe d’Azur this weekend. And, as this exclusive video shows, the delegates and speakers were out in force.
Hydrodemolition techniques have been employed on the repair of Italy’s Rio Verde Viaduct.
Hydrodemolition using high-pressure water jets to remove damaged concrete has played a vital role in the repairs and strengthening of the Italian multi-span Rio Verde Viaduct. The viaduct is one of the tallest in Europe and carries the busy dual two lane A15/E33 Autostrada della Cisa over a steep sided valley in the municipality of Pontremoli. Conjet hydrodemolition equipment was used to remove damaged concrete from the faces of the viaduct’s rectangular concrete piers, which rise up to 136m from the valley bottom to the steel deck, followed by replacement with a new and thicker concrete skin.
The 960 metre long twin steel deck viaduct, which is supported on eight reinforced concrete hollow pillars, is a major structure in the link between Parma and La Spezia on Italy’s Mediterranean coast, 100km south of Genova. The spectacular viaduct was opened in 1975, but inspection by maintenance engineers showed the bridge piers were suffering from extensive calcium chloride decay, forcing the Italian Highways Authority and the Highway Engineering Department of Cisa Ltd to carryout extensive repairs and strengthening.
The specialist hydrodemolition contractor A.B.C.Construczioni S.P.A., working for the main viaduct repair contractor SEI-Idrojet, carried out the concrete removal on one pier at a time. The repairs were performed from a special, purpose built cradle and working platform that wrapped round all four sides of the piers. The piers are 21m long and 8.5m wide at the base and tapering to 2.5 wide at the apex. The ends of the platform were adjustable to compensate for the changing width of the piers. The whole platform was supported and raised and lowered on wire ropes, which went up to pulleys on a steel support cradle at the top of the pier and back down to four synchronised winches anchored at ground level.
Conjet modified a standard robot feedbeam to fit onto and run along a rack on the inner sides of the platform in the fixed space between the pier and the platform. A Conjet Computer Control Unit, also mounted on the platform, was used to control the feedbeam and integral jetting nozzle. A Conjet 345-400kW Powerpack at ground level provided the high-pressure water at 1000bar and flow of 200l/min to the feedbeam’s nozzle. The feedbeam and nozzle, travelling back and forth along the platform’s rack, selectively removed damaged concrete to a depth of 70mm and below any exposed reinforcing. The process continued on one face of a pier as the platform was slowly raised to the top. On completion of removal of the concrete from one face, the platform was lowered and the Conjet feedbeam moved to another side of the platform for the process to be repeated on all four faces.
On completion of concrete removal another team followed on fixing additional reinforcement in stages to all sides of the tapering pier. Shuttering panels 1.8m high were then fixed round all faces to support a new 220 mm thick skin of self compacting concrete pumped into the formwork from ground level. After the concrete had set the formwork was removed and repositioned for the next 1.8m lift for the process to be repeated to the top of the pier.
On completion of repairing and strengthening a pier with an additional layer of concrete, the working platform was dismantled and re-erected on the next and then subsequent piers for the hydrodemolition and concrete repair process to be repeated.
German company Mende Schornsteinbau demonstrates a modern take on chimney demolition.
Faced with a giant chimney, most demolition contractors would be checking their explosives insurance and erecting the sandbags, ready for the big bang. Not Mende Schornsteinbau GmbH. The German specialist demonstrated that these jobs can be handled with the same delicacy and precision as any other demolition project.
The EDA Conference in Nice provided an opportunity for Dehaco to unveil some innovative products.
With the likes of New Holland, JCB, Case, Caterpillar Liebherr and Komatsu in attendance, the focus of the European Demolition Association conference in Nice could have been all about high reach excavators and other large machines.
But a video from Dutch manufacturer Dehaco set tongues wagging with some highly innovative products. The company has very kindly allowed us to reproduce that video here, together with our new pre-roll advertisement from sponsor Pirtek:
General Demolition celebrates gold to the power of three.
Gold Award 1
General Demolition is celebrating winning one of the prestigious RoSPA (The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) Occupational Health and Safety Awards 2009.
The RoSPA awards ensure that organisations have good health and safety systems in place, thus reducing the number of accidents and cases of ill health at work. David Rawlins, RoSPA awards manager said:”General Demolition Limited has shown a commitment to protecting the health and well being of its employees and others. Entering the RoSPA awards reinforces the message that good health & safety is good for business, and clearly demonstrates an organisation’s dedication to improving performance in this crucial area”
Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive of the General Group comments: “We are delighted to have won the gold award from RoSPA. The well being of our employees is paramount, and it is an honour to be recognised for our long-term commitment in this crucial area of our business.”
Gold Awards 2
The City of London’s Considerate Contractor Scheme Judging Panel has named General Demolition as a Gold Award recipient for its overall performance at 1 Tudor Street, the former north wing of Unilever House close to Blackfriars Bridge in London, the company’s second Gold Award in three years.
“We are extremely proud to have won another Gold Award,” said General Demolition’s senior projects manager Tom Henry who led the site team. “The award recognises that we consistently exceeded the requirements of the City of London’s
Code of Good Practice, carrying out our operations in a safe and considerate manner. It also reflects a spirit of pride in our work, an awareness of the passing public and due regard for the surrounding environment,” added Tom.
Gold Sponsor
For the seventh consecutive year General Demolition will be a Gold sponsor at this years Little Britain Challenge Cup. Colin McLoughlin, Chairman of the General Group comments:”As well as being enormous fun, Little Britain has become a key event on the networking calendar and I am thrilled to be a long term sponsor.”
No-cost solution facilitates decommissioning of pipe plant.
A major project to decommission one of Europe’s largest former pipe manufacturing plants is being carried out at no cost to its owner, thanks to specialist project managers and construction design management (CDM) co-ordinators RVA Group.
Cast iron technology leader Saint-Gobain PAM UK had initially thought that the cost to deplant and demolish the former Central Melting Plant (CMP) and adjacent Hallam Plant at Stanton-by-Dale, Ilkeston – which ceased production in 2006 – would be excessive and prohibitive. But after appointing RVA, Saint-Gobain is now assured that the project will not only be self-funding, it stands to generate a positive return.
At the end of 2008 the mothballed heavy industrial plants posed a number of ongoing security and safety issues for Saint-Gobain. Saint-Gobain PAM UK finance director Nick Cammack said: “We knew we needed to address the issue, but given the current economic climate, the timing wasn’t ideal. Initially we were looking to dismantle elements of the plant for scrap whilst mothballing the remainder of the buildings, believing this would be the safest and most cost effective option.
“But we brought in RVA to conduct a series of feasibility studies that would investigate and cost the different solutions available to us. The team came back to us with a number of innovative opportunities, one of which had the potential to be cash generative.”
RVA’s in-depth evaluation provided a new perspective and it soon became apparent that the safest and most financially gainful solution was complete clearance of the site, which would generate sufficient funds from scrap materials to cover the cost of the project.
RVA was so confident that the project would, as a minimum, fund itself that it was willing to put a proportion of its fee at risk, should projected targets not be met.
The team of specialist consulting engineers then carefully devised a best value contractor works specification, and played an integral part in appointing demolition firm Brown & Mason to begin the nine-month decommissioning contract at the end of May.
Nick continued: “We’d had positive experiences working with RVA in the past, including on a 38-week project at Staveley Works which was executed to a fantastic standard. We knew they could be relied upon, so we didn’t even approach anyone else. If, in this case, it was proved the project couldn’t fund itself, we wouldn’t have decided to go ahead. We couldn’t afford to embark upon an expensive decommissioning venture, but RVA’s independent, impartial guidance and thorough insight has been invaluable to us. It’s our belief that no other company is comparable to RVA in their field.”
RVA managing director Richard Vann said: “The deep recession is causing many companies to think very carefully before embarking on what may be seen as non-essential spend. This often results in the postponing of important dismantling and decommissioning projects as they are simply deemed unaffordable, albeit they will have to be tackled at a later date and in most cases at an increased cost.
“We recognise that not all projects can be cash positive or even cost neutral. However, by bringing in specialists like ourselves with the expertise to investigate different options, companies can make informed decisions and demonstrably save money in the long run.
“Our knowledge of surplus capacity in the competent supply chain, combined with carefully specifying the work scope for example– stripping out all non-essential elements from the contractor’s brief without comprising safety or quality – can ensure robust and cost-effective solutions are devised. Consequently, direct liabilities such as hazardous material containment, security and maintenance costs, as well as unavoidable overheads such as local authority building rates, are removed.”
Demolition News will not be adding updates between 4 and 7 June 2009.
On 4 June, the Demolition News team will be heading for sunny (we hope) Nice in France to bring you all the latest news, views and comments from the latest European Demolition Association conference. As a result, this site will NOT be updated between 4 and 7 June.
However, we WILL be bringing you comment and reaction LIVE via Twitter (the brief messages located just below the Twitter logo to the left of this page) including audio feedback from delegates and presenters.
Furthermore, we will be bringing you in depth video and audio content fromthe conference immediately afterwards; it won’t be quite the same as being on the French Riviera with us, but we’ll try to make it as close as possible.
A crawler crane and wrecking ball are currently taking out the Terrace Office Center.
The final building left standing in the way of the construction of the $140 million University House project in Orange County has started to fall.
The rebar-and-cement Terrace Office Center building was built in the late 1960s, so it is perhaps fitting that it should be brought down by a crawler crane and wrecking ball.
