Regional News of Friday, 12 April 2013

Source: Joy Online

Over 200 pupils of Al-Islahiyya Primary School in the Northern Region have been left without a classroom, following a joint demolition exercise by the Lands Commission and the Department of Town and Country Planning in Tamale.

The demolition exercise took place last week after the Lands Commission and the Department of Town and Country served notice to the school and other residents to vacate the area. The area have been earmarked for a redevelopment project.

Left with no blackboards and no classroom, authorities of the school now ask pupils to come to school each day to read their text books under trees and go home. Some veterans have also been affected by the demolishing exercise.

Assistant Headmistress of the school, Ali Wasilla, told Joy News they are left with no option than to let the children study under the trees after several appeals to both the Lands Commission and the Department of Town and Country Planning authorities, prior to the demolition, yielded no positive results.

Metropolitan Chief Executive of Tamale, Alhaji Haruna, on Friday 12th April said before the demolition exercise a joint committee of the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly and the Ghana Education Service met with the Department of Town and Country Planning and the Lands Commission to ensure that they provide an alternative place for the school in the area before the demolition.

However the two institutions ignored their appeals saying provisions were not made for a school under the redevelopment of the area.

Both the Department of Town and Country Planning and the Lands Commission when contacted denied knowledge of the demolition of the school.

Northern Regional correspondent, Hashmin Mohammed, reports that until alternative classrooms are found for the pupil of Al-Islahiyya Primary School, they will continue to come to school each day to read their text books under trees.

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Demolition exercise in Tamale leave over 200 pupils under trees

The ASARCO demolition has sent some into a panic over the possible environmental effects or health hazards.

Many question the impact the demolition could have on the borderland's water supply.

Experts told KFOX14, it's highly unlikely there will be any impact at all.

Hydrologist and The University of Texas at El Paso professor of civil engineering, John Walton said the old smelter site currently does more environmental harm than dropping the stacks could do. "When we take down the stacks we will see a little puff of dust but I think that contamination is small compared to what we've seen in the past," said Walton.

Walton said, thanks to the drought, El Paso's water supply is not coming from the Rio Grande at this time so any dust or debris from the demolition will not affect the water that comes through your tap.

El Paso Water Utilities confirms they are not using any river water at this time.

In the rare case contaminates do somehow settle on the riverbank and then make it into our water supply, Walton said EPWU testing would prevent it from ever coming through your tap.

"They test the water before it ever goes in the pipes to make sure it's safe to drink," said Walton.

But Walton said the bigger issue is the large body of contaminated groundwater underneath the ASARCO site itself that has more than a century's accumulation of arsenic, lead and other heavy metal in it.

"Now they have plans to try to clean up that groundwater, but they don't have enough funding and it's almost technically impossible to completely clean it up. So there will be some residual amount of contamination from the groundwater for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years in the future," said Walton.

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Expert: Asarco demolition less of a concern to environment than leaving it standing

Watch live video, get updates from Asarco smokestacks demolition on Saturday See photos, past stories on Asarco special section

The stage is set.

The former Asarco copper smelter site in West-Central El Paso is ready for the $1-million-plus demolition of two large smokestacks to take place near sunrise Saturday.

"Our team has been working very hard to prepare the site, and I think we left no stone unturned to make

Most of the preparation work was done last week, and the installation of a huge water-mist system, one of the dust-control mechanisms, was completed this week, Puga reported.

A 612-foot smokestack, about the height of a 50-story building, used at the site's long-closed lead smelter, will be demolished first with a blast of explosives.

That will be followed about eight seconds later with a blast to demolish the iconic, 828-foot smokestack used for the copper smelter, which stopped operations in 1999. That 47-year-old stack, almost the height of a 70-story building, is visible for

It's that stack that Sunland Park restaurateur Roberto Ardovino spent about a year leading an unsuccessful effort to try to save. Ardovino sees the smokestack as a historic landmark that could have anchored the site's eventual redevelopment.

Come Saturday, Ardovino said, he plans to be out of town.

"I won't watch it," Ardovino said of the stacks' demolition. "It's a real low spot in El Paso history."

More:
Prep work finished for demolition at Asarco

After Saturday's highly anticipated demolition of the ASARCO smokestacks, many wonder what will happen next for the former smelter area.

ASARCO site trustee Roberto Puga said remediation of the area will continue for most of the next three years. That will include burying the debris and other toxic elements from the old smelter, restoring green spacing in the area, including arroyos, and preparing the land for sale.

"We are scheduled for completion of the remediation in 2015, which means that we would like to put the property on the market, and hopefully sell it in 2016," Puga said.

ASARCO's land straddles both sides of Interstate 10, and in the past, Puga has indicated that the University of Texas at El Paso may want to acquire some of the land north of the interstate that is adjacent to the university.

"We do have some plans. We have been working and talking with the folks, the trustee, about how we can best memorialize what ASARCO meant to El Paso over the years," said Bernie Sargent of the El Paso County Historical Commission.

The old smelter sight played a huge role in El Paso's history in both good and bad ways.

It was one of the city's main economic drivers throughout the 20th century by employing thousands of people and pumped billions of dollars into the local economy.

It also contributed to having the highest levels of lead in all of Texas and contaminated the soil of nearby neighborhoods.

In the event that the demolition would cause damage to nearby properties, the demolition team is prepared.

The Calavera Canyon neighborhood sits closest to the blast site, and each owner was contacted about exactly what to expect.

Excerpt from:
Future plans for ASARCO following demolition

Archive photos: El Paso City Hall

The family behind Controlled Demolition Inc. -- the company bringing down the former City Hall -- has long been in headlines as it has worked on some of the largest demolition projects around the world and on some big-name Hollywood action movies.

On April 14, CDI will add El Paso's former City Hall building to its long list of projects, which includes a handful of Las Vegas hotels.

In 2009, the company imploded what was dubbed the "leaning tower of South Padre," a 38-story skyscraper with great ocean views. The Ocean Tower high-rise remained unfinished when it began sinking into the sand and cracking. That set the world record for the demolition of the tallest reinforced concrete building.

Nearly 10 years before that, CDI set the world record for imploding the tallest structural steel building: The 44-story, 439-foot-tall J.L. Hudson Building in Detroit.

The company was founded in 1947 by Jack Loizeaux, a forestry worker who began to use explosives to remove the roots of trees that had died. He then branched out, knocking down bridges and buildings.

Today, CDI is known as a leader in the commercial explosives demolition industry.

"It's definitely a family thing," said Stacey Loizeaux, the

Her father, Mark Loizeaux, is now president of the company.

Controlled Demolition Inc. is known for its implosions, where strategically placed explosives break a building that then falls into its own footprint.

Continue reading here:
El Paso City Hall demolition : From Hollywood to the historic, firm topples towers nationwide

It's D-day for the old I-595 ramp to southbound Florida's Turnpike.

Drivers on Florida's Turnpike could continue to face slowdowns near Interstate 595 through at least midday Sunday as workers continue to demolish an old ramp.

Half of the 280-foot-long span over the turnpike's southbound lanes was knocked down on Saturday. Late Saturday and early Sunday, the other half over the northbound lanes was to come down.

From an area just north of the demolition, project manager Paul Lampley watched as chunks of debris fell from the bridge. Several pieces of heavy equipment, include backhoes with jackhammers, banged away at the bridge deck, removing 2,000 tons of steel-reinforced concrete, which will be recycled. A cushion of dirt protected the turnpike lanes below.

"It's a piece-by-piece process," Lampley said. "It went off without any problems."

Signs on I-95 coming out of Miami and as far as 50 miles away on the turnpike warned drivers to expect delays at I-595. Some turnpike drivers, however, got caught in a jam early Saturday.

On a typical day, 120,000 vehicles use that section of the turnpike, a popular route to and from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Port Everglades, and a fast-moving alternative to the more congested I-95.

But two of the turnpike's three northbound and southbound lanes were closed at I-595 at 6 a.m. Saturday.

It didn't take long for northbound turnpike traffic to back up almost five miles to Hollywood Boulevard. Crew reopened a second northbound lane for a few hours Saturday morning to relieve the gridlock but closed the lane again about noon as demolition moved closer to the northbound lanes.

All lanes on the northbound turnpike closed at 5 p.m. Saturday and will remain closed until 1 p.m. Sunday. Traffic is being detoured onto I-595, State Road 7 and Sunrise Boulevard back to the turnpike. The southbound side will continue to get by the demolition in a single lane until 1 p.m. Sunday.

Link:
Demolition to delay turnpike drivers through at least 1 p.m. Sunday | Video

TOURISM department regional head Helen Catalbas has requested to the City Government of Iloilo for the demolition of a city-funded overpass, which, she said, is useless.

"Useless and has outlived its usefulness to the present condition of the city that must be demolished immediately" is the stakeholders' reaction against the P400,000-worth city-funded overpass along Bonifacio Drive in front of the Department of Tourism (DOT) regional office.

DOT regional director Helen Catalbas, who wrote the request to the City Government of Iloilo, said the overpass outlived its usefulness for 20 years.

She added that several sectors, including DOT and the Provincial Government, are against the construction of the overpass even during the time of Malabor; however, Malabor insisted to build the project with city funds, claiming the people will have a safe passage across the busy street especially to the Hall of Justice building.

There were police reports that the unlighted overpass was used only by drunks and members of the cultural minorities to sleep during the evenings and a rape incident and murder case happened at the edifice.

Leone Gerochi, head of the City Council committee on engineering, construction and public works, said the committee concluded a public hearing on Thursday, April 4, 2013, on the requested demolition of the overpass and will render its recommendation to City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog immediately after the May 2013 elections.

The public hearing was participated by Catalbas and other stakeholders along the Bonifacio Drive area.

The overpass was built in 1993 during the term of former City Mayor Mansueto Malabor as the mayor's legacy project.

Gerochi said the overpass project is a last recourse in any urban planning and may come up with a solution soon.

Gerochi said he will exhaust all means to get public sentiments on the project or may recommend for a demolition or redesign and rehabilitation if warranted.

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Demolition of Iloilo overpass sought

MIAMI -

Construction crews started demolishing an out-of-service flyover ramp connecting I-595 to the southbound lanes of Florida's Turnpike on Saturday.

The demolition is part of the $1.2 billion reconstruction of the two major roadways.Drivers are already using the new ramp used to connect Westbound I-595 to the Southbound Turnpike.

Northbound is shut down until 1 p.m. Sunday to keep drivers safe. Until then, drivers are being rerouted.

VIEW: Florida's Turnpike closures

The detour will take drivers eastbound on I-595, where they can get off on 441 and head north to Sunrise Boulevard. There, drivers will be able to hop back onto the Turnpike.The southbound lanes are expected to be open with a single lane.

A contractor, who specializes in bridge demolition, has been brought in to do the job. All told, it will take two dozen crew members some 10 hours to bring down the old ramp. The carefully choreographed demo will include more than a wrecking ball.

"Its a steel girder bridge, so they'll be demolishing the concrete deck and taking down the steel beams one-by-one, said Paul Lampley, the project manager. "They'll be using specialized equipment for the demolition.

Construction crews laid out a bed of sand on the Turnpike going in both directions.A cover on the northbound side should keep the debris from flying eastbound.

Once the debris is hauled off, the sand will be swept and the lanes will re-open.

Originally posted here:
Demolition begins on flyover ramp

Home demolition underway to revitalize Tampa city
Certain homes in Tampa Bay wrought with decay among other problems are being demoed in order to revitalize the city.

By: ABCActionNews

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Home demolition underway to revitalize Tampa city - Video

Demolition Epicness
Enjoy My Gameplay.

By: Syd3150

Link:
Demolition Epicness - Video