Heavy equipment began chewing away Monday at the former Big 10 Mart in downtown Bettendorf to pave the way for a new Interstate 74 bridge and the realignment of State and Grant streets.

The building at 411 14th St. became the latest to meet the wrecking ball in the downtown area. The demolition is being done by Holst Trucking and Excavating of LeClaire.

Doug Rick, the I-74 project manager for Iowa Department of Transportation, or DOT, said the company has 20 days, by contract, to complete the work, but "it probably will take less than that."

"There's not that many buildings left," he said, adding that the Big 10 Mart gas station is the 37th structure to be demolished on the Iowa side of the river as part of the I-74 project. When the work is completed, 42 buildings will have been removed to make way for the new bridge, interchanges and street realignment.

The contract for demolishing the nearby Q-C Mart, 1402 State St., likely will be let this fall or winter, Rick said. That structure, as well as the former Crescent Cleaners and a small machine shop at 329 11th St., will be included in the roadwork contract for realigning Grant and State streets. The contractor that gets the street realignment project also will have control over the demolition to control the schedule, Rick said.

The estimated $13 million project "brings Grant and State streets together for a few blocks so we can bring the future interchange to that site," he added.

Ross' Restaurant and its former drive-through, which is a separate restaurant, will be the last two to come down in downtown Bettendorf, he said. "But that won't be for another year."

According to Rick, the DOT plans to maintain traffic during the realignment and reconstruction of State and Grant streets between 10th and 17th streets.

"We're able to keep State Street open for most of the traffic because it is being realigned," he said. Grant Street is being slightly realigned, but traffic will be reduced to two lanes during the project.

"It's becoming real when you see the contractors doing the work," he said. In addition to demolition, Iowa American Water also is working on a related water main project.

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Crews continue demolition for new I-74 bridge

The demolition of the Belmont Plaza Pool could get one step closer after the City Council meeting slated for Aug. 19.

City staff will be asking the council to authorize contracts with Psomas Corporation and Exbon Development, for a combined $3.146 million, which will cover the demolition of the Belmont Plaza Pool complex and allow for temporary facilities as necessary (like bathroom and shower areas).

There is still the Coastal Commission process to go through, but this is the contractor process for the demolition part of the pool, said Tom Modica, deputy city manager.

The city is using what is called a JOC (job order contracting) method, which gives staff the ability to have contractors that are already qualified and specced out for certain types of projects, officials said.

Modica said timing was important for the demolition because the city staff want to begin the demolition before the January 2015 bird-nesting season begins which could potentially delay the project.

The demolition will not begin until the California Coastal Commission has given final approval of the project. Modica said that the commission likely will here the permit request in the next few months.

The City Council also will hear from a stakeholder committee at the end of August, which is made up of 13 business, residential and aquatic stakeholders from the area, about the ultimate design of the future complex.

In June, city staff presented the estimated cost for a new Belmont Beach and Aquatics Center as $99 million about a third more than original estimates. That recommendation could be completed by late 2016 should all approvals and construction go smoothly. It would be paid for by Tidelands money and is necessary due to seismic concerns that closed the facility at the beginning of last year.

Originally, the estimated cost was about $62 million, but former Assistant City Manager Suzanne Frick said the more recent concept and its price tag were largely based on Coastal Commission requirements, like raising the entire building off of the sand to allow for sea level rise, the addition of a restaurant and banquet facility and 2,500 permanent seats.

The $99 million would pay for indoor and outdoor 50-meter pools, a recreational pool and the building with all support facilities. It would include a platform diving component as part of the indoor pool rather than as a separate diving well.

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Long Beach City Council Will Discuss Belmont Plaza Pool Demolition Contracts

Naomi Watts could be cast in the latest film directed by Dallas Buyers Club's Jean-Marc Valle.

According to The Wrap, the actress is in talks to star in the movie, alongside Jake Gyllenhaal who is already attached.

The banker begins to tear apart his life in a distraught effort to see where he went wrong but ultimately is rescued by a woman he meets in a chance encounter.

If Watts does join the production, she is set to play a pot-smoking customer service representative working for a vending machine company. The single mother is dating her boss but soon falls for Gyllenhaal's character.

The 45-year-old actress recently signed up to appear in the next three films in the Divergent franchise and has been in talks for Gus Van Sant's Sea of Trees.

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Naomi Watts in talks to star opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in Demolition

by Bill McBride on 8/17/2014 10:59:00 AM

We had hoped that with these settlements we could bring down the number of never-to-be-lived-in houses, said Jim Rokakis, director of the Thriving Communities Institute, a program of the nonprofit Western Reserve Land Conservancy that works to take over and repurpose vacant properties in the Cleveland area. Vacancy rates are 15 percent or higher, all as a result of the crisis. Now its a matter of burying the dead.

Mr. Rokakiss organization also works with 22 county land banks throughout the state, nonprofit entities that take over distressed properties and sell them for nominal amounts to people who will rebuild on them or, more commonly, turn them into gardens or community spaces.

Studies show that bulldozing distressed properties reduces foreclosure rates in the surrounding neighborhoods and can improve the values of nearby homes. An analysis conducted for the Western Reserve Land Conservancy found that demolishing 6,000 homes in and around Cleveland between 2009 and 2013 helped slow the fall in property values, generating a net benefit in retained property values of $1.40 for every dollar spent on demolition. In January 2009, I proposed adding a demolition plan to the stimulus package. This would have helped remove blight from many areas, and would have employed many idled construction workers. I think this was a small missed opportunity.

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Demolition as Stimulus

Deck Demolition Part 1 - GoPro Time Lapse
It was time to take the deck out so me and Carie turned on the GoPro Hero 3+ Black and went to work. The GoPro stopped taking images for some reason after 1740 of them. Had plenty of battery...

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A small section of the demolition industry has been dumping earthquake waste illegally and giving the industry a bad name, Environment Canterbury (ECan) says.

A review by The Press of offences since the February 2011 earthquake shows a raft of demolition contractors have been prosecuted by ECan for offences including burning, burying and dumping earthquake waste illegally.

Earthquake waste can include hazardous material such as asbestos, arsenic and other toxins.

Nearly a dozen directors and/or companies have been fined about $300,000 by ECan and the courts for offences against the Resource Management Act since February 2011.

ECan has also served a number of abatement notices and investigations are continuing.

In one of worst examples brought to light by the prosecutions, 5000 cubic metres of earthquake demolition waste was used to form a half-metre-deep farm track about 1000 metres long and 10m wide on Coutts Island Holdings land.

It was delivered to the site by Canterbury Greenwaste Processors.

The waste had not been screened for contaminants and contained asbestos from several inner-city buildings.

The farm property is on land adjacent to the Otukaikino Stream, which runs into the Waimakariri River.

In July, Judge Jane Borthwick warned of an "emerging trend" of illegal disposal by contractors when fining Tom Thumb Ltd shareholder Aaron Cooper $33,750 for burying 30 truckloads of earthquake demolition material.

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Fines for illegal disposal of debris

By: Melissa Randall mrandall@abc6.com

Demolition crews at Warwicks Rocky Point have some catching up to do. They lost 4 days making repairs to vandalized equipment. Friday morning shards of glass from the smashed windows still covered the ground.

Must have been, maybe kids trying to have a good time. Some sort of twisted good time though, said Mike Garofalo, Supervisor of HK&S.

Garofalo discovered the damage Tuesday morning. He says 8 of the 11 trucks had the glass windows smashed, a trailer was broken into, and items were stolen. The timing puts the men between a rock and a hard place.

We are on a tight time line. 75 days total for the project and we're creeping up on it September 8th so it was very, very frustrating to come in and see that kind of damage when we are trying to accelerate schedules as fast as we are, he said.

While a portion of the walking path down by the water is open to the public the construction site is owned by the state and is off limits. The area is patrolled by both DEM and local police. It is also surrounded by chain link fence. Even still the spot is prone to mischievous behavior.

Police were called to the site and a report was taken. They said the damage appears to be malicious. Officers dusted for finger prints. The investigation is ongoing.

You're really hurting the city of Warwick to be honest with you. Because this is there project basically and their place to enjoy when it's done so you're hurting everybody not just us, said Garofalo.

DEM calls the incident an unfortunate, yet minor setback. Demolition crews say they are doing everything they can to keep with their deadline. The official grand reopening of rocky point is still planned for sometime next month.

WLNE-TV 2014

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Demolition equipment at Rocky Point vandalized

Billings Public Library Director Bill Cochran is laying 50-50 odds that the parking lot will indeed be constructed on the site of the old Parmly Billings Library before cold temperatures this fall preclude the laying of asphalt.

Removing asbestos from the building is expected to take about two more weeks, he said on Friday. That work will be immediately followed by a Department of Environmental Quality inspection, after which construction work on the parking lot which was originally scheduled to open this summer can begin.

Im cautiously optimistic this time that we will see the start of the (demolition) work the week after next, he said.

Last Monday, the Billings City Council unanimously approved an emergency demolition order for the old building, at 510 N. Broadway. The order calls for the demolition to occur ASAP or as soon after is possible after all environmental impacts have been remediated from the building.

At the same time, the council approved a payment of about $404,000 to Safetech, the citys asbestos abatement contractor, to complete the removal of asbestos before demolition work can proceed. Payment to Safetech for this required work, Cochran wrote in a memorandum to council members, does not constitute acknowledgement by the City that all or any of these costs are the responsibility of the City and reimbursement will be pursued with the responsible parties.

Before the demolition work can resume, debris that fell into the buildings basement must be removed. After that, a vacuum truck will be brought in to clean out the basement.

Then, after the DEQ inspection indicates the site is asbestos-free, the demolition can begin.

The demolition work will proceed faster than it did this spring, Cochran said, because asbestos abatement wont be going on

simultaneously. He said he expects the demolition process to take about three weeks.

If asphalt for the 100-space parking lot cant be laid this fall, there are alternatives that could still allow for the opening of the parking lot in 2014, Cochran said. One option is to use the gravel base for the asphalt lot to park on until next spring, when temperatures warm up.

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Let the demolition begin soon

BO2 [PC]: Hardpoint and Demolition BACK | Weekend Double XP
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BO2 [PC]: Hardpoint and Demolition BACK | Weekend Double XP - Video

The breeze carries the tinny jingle of the approaching ice cream truck, so Mike Puma leaves the railing he's painting on his two-family, electric-blue home to buy a milkshake.

He pays more for the shake than he did his entire home.

Of course, when he bought this home for $1 this year, it had a demolition notice on the door, walls the consistency of a Three Musketeers bar and mold coating the ceilings. But Puma, 24, feels that he got a bargain. Plus, he takes pleasure in knowing that this century-old house will not be torn down.

"We're reintroducing new life into these properties," he said. "Not only are you taking a stand against demolition, but you're taking a stand on what happens in this city."

Across the Rust Belt, cities are beginning to tear down tens of thousands of vacant homes. But Puma and a small group of other activists in Buffalo are battling the demolition process, trying to find residents to buy the fixer-uppers.

Puma alone has saved two houses on his block by persuading friends to buy them though Buffalo's Urban Homestead program, which allows residents to buy homes for a dollar if they show they have the resources to make necessary repairs and promise to live in them for at least three years.

Gary, Ind., launched its own version of the Dollar Home program last year with an initial six houses sold for $1 each. Other cities, including Philadelphia and Detroit, allow homeowners to acquire vacant lots next door for a small sum.

Puma said Americans were too quick to destroy old homes, and he is fighting "the never-ending rumble of demolition equipment."

Cities demolish salvageable buildings because there's political incentive to clear up blight, said David Torke, a neighborhood activist and blogger who works with Puma to save old homes.

The money spent on demolition $15,000 a home could be spent to repair the houses and make them habitable, Torke said.

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As an alternative to demolition, Buffalo offers homes for a dollar