The most popular demolition stories in 2008
07 January 2009
Following the re-launch of www.khl.com in April last year, visitor numbers have grown steadily throughout the year, so many of the more popular stories in terms of the number of times they were viewed were published later in 2008.
With high reach demolition one of the industry's main drivers in 2008 it was no surprise that by far the most popular story was the first time Rusch's high reach demolition rig achieved its full 90 m working height prior to handover to Euro Demolition in August.
August also saw the UK's National Federation of Demolition Contractors (NFDC) issue a new guidance document to all its members concerning the use of mobile crushing plant in the demolition role. Previous guidance issued by the Health and Safety Executive in the UK was more geared towards the use of this equipment in quarrying applications and, in the NFDC's view, did not necessarily take account of the environment to be found on typical demolition sites, and this was the second most popular story in the Demolition sector of KHL.com.
Innovation is the name of the game in the demolition world and this was reflected in the third most read story, which concerned a new patented system whereby hydraulic jacks are strategically placed in a building and are used to put hydraulic pressure on to strategically located parts of the structure causing it to collapse ‘like a pack of cards' onto a very small footprint.
New equipment stories also proved popular with the launch of Brokk's latest remote controlled demolition robot - the Brokk 400 - and Sandvik's launch of its new generation of medium sized hydraulic breakers both proving popular.
The most read site report came from Spain's Canary Islands, where construction projects frequently involve the excavation of large volumes of some of the hardest rocks to be found in the world.
The demolition industry was not immune to the global credit crunch and in October the downturn in the demand for new equipment in North America and Western Europe led Doosan to "consolidate" its Geith, UK attachment business with the loss of 47 jobs.
The other major demolition stories in 2008 were a round-up of the latest excavator for the demolition sector, the creation of the Demolition Awards by Demolition & Recycling magazine, KHL Group and the European Demolition Association,and a preview of the ConExpo show in Las Vegas, US.
4 On track - the latest in hydraulic excavators
10 Breaking rock - a site report from Tenerife
