MCCRACKEN COUNTY, KY (KFVS) -

A contractor for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) is continuing to develop an alternate plan for demolition of the remaining in-water piers at the Old Ledbetter Bridge site.

When the last steel truss section over the Tennessee River main navigation channel was detonated on Oct. 1, damage was caused to the concrete structures.

KYTC says cracks left in the piers raised safety questions about the drilling process.

Mark Hutchins, Project Manager with C.J. Manhan Construction Company, said the piers had suffered horizontal cracking and extreme deflections.

In our experience, as well as in all that of our specialty (explosives) contractor, we have never witnessed pier deflections of the magnitude indicated , Hutchins said. We would not want to attempt to drill the piers to place explosives without providing some external means of ensuring stability. Given their location in the river, it is not clear how to accomplish this.

KYTC engineers and the company are continuing to work on options, but it may be several weeks before a plan is fully developed and approved.

Removing the river piers in a safe and environmentally sound manner is among several challenges that were a part of the demolition process from the beginning, KYTC District 1 Chief Engineer MikeMcGregor said. We continue to work with our contractor and the various federal and state agencies to develop a viable plan to remove the piers.

KYTC says the contractor has continued conventional demolition of the approach spans along the Livingston County end of the Old Ledbetter Bridge.

All steel is down and the contractor is digging around and pushing over the land-based piers.

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Alternate plan for demolition of Old Ledbetter Bridge piers moving forward

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Demolition crews begin tearing down the childhood home of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and State Planning Minister Matthew Guy says there is nothing he can do to stop it.

A demolition crew has started work tearing down Gough Whitlam's childhood home, just a day after he passed away.

State Planning Minister Matthew Guy says there's nothing he can do to prevent the demolition of the house.

The minister came under fire over plans to raze the house following the death of the former prime minister on Tuesday.

It's time? A demolition crew has begun work at Ngara, the Kew childhood home of Gough Whitlam.

Fairfax Media revealed the property in Kew, in Melbourne's inner east, would be demolished after being denied heritage protection.

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According to local legend, Mr Whitlam was born on the kitchen table of 46 Rowland Street, in 1916.

A demolition crew arrived at the property at 7.30am on Wednesday and began ripping out the interior of the house, known as Ngara.

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No stopping demolition of Whitlam childhood home: Planning Minister Matthew Guy

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Demolition crews begin tearing down the childhood home of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and State Planning Minister Matthew Guy says there is nothing he can do to stop it.

A demolition crew has started work tearing down Gough Whitlam's childhood home, just a day after he passed away.

State Planning Minister Matthew Guy says there's nothing he can do to prevent the demolition of the house.

The minister came under fire over plans to raze the house following the death of the former prime minister on Tuesday.

It's time? A demolition crew has begun work at Ngara, the Kew childhood home of Gough Whitlam.

Fairfax Media revealed the property in Kew, in Melbourne's inner east, would be demolished after being denied heritage protection.

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According to local legend, Mr Whitlam was born on the kitchen table of 46 Rowland Street, in 1916.

A demolition crew arrived at the property at 7.30am on Wednesday and began ripping out the interior of the house, known as Ngara.

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I can't stop Whitlam demolition: Guy

Onlookers cheered Tuesday as a four-man demolition crew started tearing down what some had dubbed a "House of Horrors" - the squalid Massachusetts home where the skeletal remains of three infants were found.

See photos of the demolition

A backhoe started clawing at the outer walls after a 9 a.m. deadline passed without the home's owner contacting the town or seeking a court order to halt the demolition. Blackstone Town Administrator Daniel Keyes said all utilities were shut off and someone went through the building to make sure no one was inside before work began.

The town's fire department hosed down the debris and dust to contain the offensive odors still emanating from the home, which had been filled with dirty diapers, animal carcasses and infested with insects and rodents.

Blackstone's Board of Health ordered the demolition, which is expected to take two days.

Erika Murray, the woman who lived in the house with four children and her longtime boyfriend, is being held on $1 million bail on charges including fetal death concealment. She has pleaded not guilty.

Murray's lawyer Keith Halpern said last week that she appears to have mental health issues. He said Murray told him the dead infants were born starting about eight years ago and at least one was born alive and lived a few days before she found the child dead in a bassinet. The state medical examiner has not determined how old the babies were or how they died.

Murray's other four children, ranging in age from 6 months to 13 years, were removed from the house in August. Authorities found the infants' remains in a more thorough search a few weeks later.

"It's an end to a long drama here in town," Linda Konowitz said as the backhoe demolished the porch. "It's going to put a lot of people at rest."

She said the demolition wanted to see the home be demolished.

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Home where babies' bodies found demolished

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Houston, Texas (PRWEB) October 22, 2014

Whitestone Builders, a Houston based builder of custom luxury homes today announced that it was the winner of multiple awards from the Greater Houston Builders Association (GHBA). Founded in 1941, GHBA is reportedly the largest home builders association in Texas and the fourth largest in the nation.

Whitestone Builders was the winner of three categories: Custom Home Design, Custom Home Kitchen, and Custom Home Elevation; and was a finalist for Custom Home Bath and for an additional submission in Custom Home Elevation. Each award was in the category for custom homes priced between $500K and $1.0MM, which is the target sector for Whitestone Builders.

GHBA has long held the annual PRISM (Professional Results in Sales & Marketing) competition which uses an independent panel of industry specialists who are chosen from across the nation to conduct the judging. Each year, GHBA members can submit their entries to selected categories and the panel judges the entries. This years winners were revealed during a black tie ceremony held on October 4th at Houstons Royal Sonesta Hotel.

Managing his own construction crew as a teenager and then earning a degree in Construction Management, Whitestone Builders President, David Gordon, has always had a deep passion for the building industry. Regarding the panels selection of Whitestone Builders as an award recipient, Gordon said I am thrilled to have won awards in multiple categories. Whitestone Builders was founded on the premise that we would be able to set a new standard for quality workmanship in luxury custom home building. The competition this year was extremely tough and we are humbled to have excelled in such a strong field.

As a veteran builder of custom luxury homes in Houstons premier neighborhoods, Whitestone Builders partners with some of the best architects and interior designers in the region. The company has established a reputation among those in the industry, including realtors, for exceptionally high quality craftsmanship, exquisite carpentry and the meticulous processes that are essential during a building project.

Mickey Bufalini of Collaborative Design Group says Weve worked with Whitestone Builders for over 7 years and they are one of the most reputable builders we work with. They do amazing work and have an exemplary record with our clients; we cannot recommend them highly enough.

**** About Whitestone Builders With a reputation for fine carpentry, period accuracy, and distinctive quality, Whitestone builds customized luxury homes for those with the most discriminating style. Customer focused, Whitestone employs proven, well-defined processes that exceed expectations and create an experience thats second to none. To learn more and view a gallery of custom homes, visit us at WhitestoneBuilders.com and Houzz.

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Houston Luxury Custom Home Builder Whitestone Builders Wins 5 GHBA 2014 PRISM Awards

Stone Acorn Builders LP, a member of the prestigious Southern Living Custom Builder Program, will debut Houstons Southern Living Home for the Holidays Showcase in West University Place at 2718 Talbott, 77005.

The home will be open for tours on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 1-2 and Veterans Day Weekend, Nov. 8-9. Proceeds from the $10 admission benefit Operation FINALLY HOME, a non-profit that provides mortgage-free homes for wounded and disabled veterans.

The showcase home was designed by Stone Acorn Builders in-house architect Jennifer McGeoch. The 4,341-square-foot open floor plan includes four bedrooms, four bathrooms, an eat-in chefs kitchen, a game room, a study/library, a butlers pantry, an outdoor fireplace, a summer kitchen and screened in porch. Interior design will be managed by Edwina Alexis Interiors.

Southern style adorns the homes interior and exterior with details such as intricate trim work, limestone skirting, indoor and outdoor fireplaces, front and rear porches, and barn doors between the kitchen and pantry and in the upstairs game room. Natural light is one of the homes best features, illuminating cozy reading nooks and window benches throughout the home.

The open floor plan is generous and inviting with classic nuances that make this house a Southern beauty from the minute you step inside the door. White oak floors and knotty alder doors, beams, and built-in bookcases add warmth to the shiplap wainscot and paneling, with regal 9-foot to 12-foot ceilings throughout.

The kitchen is a family haven with Thermador appliances, farmhouse sink, pot filler and expansive marble counter work spaces. The full working pantry warms the heart with a picket-shaped white Mexican tile floor, marble counters and barn door to the kitchen. The adjoining mudroom adds a touch of authenticity with its Dutch door kitchen entry and exit. Morning light streams into the kitchen area, and the tongue and groove with knotty alder beams ceiling caps the rooms comfortable ambience.

The downstairs flows spaciously from study/library, to family room, and eat-in kitchen. The rooms make stunning use of tall ceilings with knotty alder beams and elegant built-in shelving. The study/library is a tranquil escape for both serious review and relaxation with its paneled walls and rolling ladder, hosting French doors encased with custom art glass panels.

A wall of bi-fold doors off the family room transition living to the outdoors and onto a deep back porch floored in grey travertine. The Southern-style porch is fashioned with a limestone wood-burning fireplace, benches and grillers summer kitchen with automated phantom screens that beckon you to bask in an evening breeze.

The homes privacy and personality continue upstairs with a master suite plus three more spacious bedrooms, a game room, and a comfortable laundry room with ample storage and a large linen closet. Built-ins are incorporated into every room with special features such as window reading benches, bookshelves and display cabinets to show off prized collectibles.

The master suite offers a palatial bathroom in neutral tones with his and her sinks, tub alcove featuring embossed tile and a large Carrera tile spa shower. The sweeping walk-in closet surrounds an island counter and convenient bench seating. The dressing area has a window seat with amble lighting, multi-storage, and lighted glass cabinets. Glistening marble is repeated on bath counters, wainscot and spa shower as a cool counterpoint to the tongue and groove paneled ceilings in the suite, where time and tension disappear.

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Southern Living Showcase Home for the Holidays to open in West U

Powdered egg manufacturer saves over $150,000 annually by implementing pneumatic conveying system.

Nutriom sets the bar high when it comes to producing its premium quality natural powdered egg products Ova Easy and Egg Crystals, that are sold at outdoor retailers such as REI, and online merchants such as Amazon.com; so, when the screw conveyor in their FSIS USDA facility required regular unexpected attention, Leonardo Etcheto, Plant Manager at the Lacey, WA facility knew it was time to look for a better solution.

Nutriom developed a unique process to produce its egg products which preserves the flavor and functionality of the eggs, and needed a materials handling system that would work within that specialized process to improve efficiency without damaging the crystals.

The screw conveyor was a difficult system to handle, says Etcheto. There were a lot of moving parts and that meant there were more things that could go wrong. It was a difficult system to clean and to perform maintenance.

Improved efficiency and gentle transfer werent the only provisions Etcheto required. Our technology is very different and were a little pickier than your average company. We needed a conveyor manufacturer that was able to modify its equipment to meet our needs, he says.

When attending a trade show for food manufacturers, Etcheto visited the booths of conveyor manufacturers. We wanted something that would not touch the product, allow us to be full stainless steel, and one of the biggest things is we wanted to get away from having to use oil, he says.

The food-grade screw conveyor at the Lacey plant had a plastic housing outside the screw conveyor. Plastic components from equipment in the food industry hold the potential to deposit debris or shavings into product undetected, and Nutriom preferred to eliminate that potential. The screw conveyor also housed a gearbox on top of the unit that required expensive H1 lubricants that on occasion, despite regular maintenance, would leak and create a mess.

After contacting a couple of East coast pneumatic conveyor manufacturers, Etcheto decided that one of the manufacturers could accommodate all his requirements. We have a lot of height restrictions because our building is older and has many areas with low ceilings and VAC-U-MAX was able to come up with a system that could fit in the space that we needed to fit into.

Celebrating its 60th year designing and manufacturing innovative pneumatic conveyor systems and support equipment for the conveying, weighing, and batching of dry materials, Belleville, NJ-based VAC-U-MAX is a pioneer with many industry firsts including air-powered venturi power units, direct-loading of vacuum-tolerant process equipment, and vertical-wall Tube Hopper material receivers.

Etcheto began with one pneumatic conveying system from the company and, based on its successful performance, we just kept adding, he says. The facility utilizes two pneumatic conveyors that connect to packaging systems, two that connect to the low temperature driers and two that connect to a mixer--one system breaks up the powder and puts it into the mixer and the other pulls it out.

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Installation Of Pneumatic Conveying System Saves Food Manufacturer $150,000

(PRWEB) October 22, 2014

Among the more than 175 diplomatic missions in Washington, D.C., few stand out more than the South African Embassy on Massachusetts Avenues Embassy Row. Marked by its iconic Nelson Mandela statue, the embassys twin Dutch Colonial buildings are now joined in the middle by a new glass atrium shaded with a striking Cambridge Architectural wire mesh faade.

The atrium is the centerpiece of architect Davis Brody Bonds recent renovation of the embassy. Cambridges stainless steel screen, woven in the companys triangular Shade pattern, covers the atriums exterior south-facing faade and wraps it in a continuous ribbon that carries under the front entrance as a ceiling as well.

The architect chose Cambridge mesh for its modern, woven appearance, solar shading characteristics and transparency.

While giving respect to history, we used Cambridge mesh to help marry the two 1935 structures with a new progressive space and design, said Robert Anderson, director for Davis Brody Bonds Washington, D.C. office.

The atrium replaces the embassys former connecting bridge and open courtyard and expands its interior to include a pubic welcoming area, conference rooms and special events space.

The initial design concept called for bronze mesh panels but eventually evolved to the more modern stainless steel look.

Visible from Massachusetts Ave., our mesh is the perfect architectural complement to blend the beautiful limestone buildings and provide a backdrop that accents the Mandela statue, said Ann Smith, Manager of Architectural Business Development for Cambridge Architectural. Its also an effective screen for shading the south-facing faade and ceiling while allowing sufficient light to brighten the atrium.

The mesh is wrapped around custom manufactured attachments (based on Cambridges Scroll attachment system) at the green roof level and front entrance ceiling. Its mounted off the glass to allow for a custom-designed window washing system.

Wire mesh continues on the inside of the atrium to accent the ceiling in the new open public area. Large framed mesh panels are also installed as hinged ceiling panels for easy HVAC access.

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Cambridge Architectural Weaves Past With Present in South African Embassy Renovation

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Carpet CleaningExperts in Port Charlotte, FL. - Video