Alford Techologies is currently acting as principal contractor on the RWE site and is overseeing the explosive demolition work. The company was brought in to work on the project in March, following the partical collapse in February. Speaking to Construction News, managing director Roland Alford said Alford had been tasked specifically with developing a method to demolish the structure remotely. He said: “To my knowledge, it’s never been attempted anywhere ever before, so we really had to start from the ground up when working out how to do it.” The company has spent months developing its plan for the explosive demolition and has invented a number of new explosive charges and connectors for use at Didcot. It has also trained operatives to use its 10 robots which have been prepared to begin planting charges at the site. The group received the green light to start work from the multi-agency strategic co-ordination group on Monday this week. Platic explosives have been imported in from Finland for the operation. The robots have been made by Irish company Reamda and British firm AB Precision, with the team also using Brokk remote-controlled demolition machines and lightweight tractors supplied by the Army Alford Technologies has used the robots to carry out laser scans of the existing structure to determine its condition, before carrying and planting explosive charges onto the columns holding it up. Different-sized robots are being used in tandem to place the charges precisely. Mr Alford said: ”Right now, the final charges are being placed and we’re using the lightweight tractor to carry the medium-sized robots, strapped onto a pallet onto site. These weigh 300-400 kilos. “The medium robot carries one of our charges, a special C-shaped charge, that it places over a girder to cut it. “And we’ve got a small robot on the side giving us a good perspective of that so we can get the placement accurate. “This has really been pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and what’s been done in the past.” The remaining structure consists of two boiler units, which are effectively two separate, but linked, buildings. There are six columns in total holding up the structure, in three rows of two, and Mr Alford said that the explosives will cut and kick out the middle two legs first before quickly doing the same to the outer legs on the south side of the structure. “That will drop the building and the boiler will start moving. The building will actually hinge over the northern stanchions,” he said. “Then there’s only one direction it can collapse in, so there’s no chance of it skewing sideways or falling towards the debris pile, which is obviously totally unacceptable. “The whole purpose of being here is to facilitate the recovery of the three guys.” The bodies of three Coleman & Co employees – Ken Cresswell, John Shaw and Chris Huxtable – remain trapped under the collapsed portion of the boiler house. Another worker, Michael Collings, was found dead shortly after the collapse on 23 February. Mr Alford also said that the vast majority of his team are ex-military personnel with a “built-in understanding of grief and loss”, which has helped when keeping the families of the missing men informed of progress. “When the families first came here they were very upset about the delays,” he said. “When they started talking to our guys, they said they trusted us and that they believed us, because they realised that our guys take it very personally. “For a long time we were operating in the shadows and no-one was aware of what we were doing, so it didn’t look like much was happening. “But actually an awful lot was [being done], we were doing lots of testing and development of the charges, and our training. “No-one’s sitting there wondering what to do – we’ve been working flat out for months now. Everyone’s just totally motivated to make this a success and do it as quickly as possible.” RWE had written to local residents earlier this week to tell them that demolition was scheduled to take place tomorrow. Once the building has been brought down and an inspection carried out, Brown and Mason will oversee the removal of material.   Source link

Accord Buy To Let has announced today that it has launched a new five-year fixed rate range which includes added incentives. According to the intermediary-only lender, the new products are available to remortgaging landlords with a 25% or 40% deposit and come with some no-product completion fee options. Highlights of the five-year fixed rate range, which are all available with free standard valuation and the choice of either standard legal fees or £300 cashback on completion, include: • 2.99% five-year fixed rate mortgage at 60% LTV with no product completion fee • 2.99% five-year fixed rate mortgage at 75% LTV with a £1,845 fee Accord has also reduced rates on selected fixed rate mortgages by up to 0.15%. Highlights include a competitive 1.84% two-year fix at 60% LTV for landlords looking to remortgage, with a £1,845 fee, free standard valuation and a choice of either free standard legal fees or £300 cashback on completion. Chris Maggs, Accord’s Buy to Let Commercial Manager, said: “We’re constantly reviewing our buy-to-let mortgages to offer the best fit for landlords. Our new five-year fixes, coupled with the rate reductions, provide a choice of competitive deals across our entire mortgage range to suit every landlord’s requirements.   We hope the additional incentives, and choice of no product completion fee options, will minimise the cost for landlords when they take out a remortgage on a property.”   Source link

Total new home sales in Australia bounced back in March with growth of 8.9% following February’s sharp decline of 5.3%, the latest housing data shows. Sales of detached houses increased by 7% and sales of multi-units were up 16.3%, according to the new home sales report from the Housing Industry Association which covers the country’s largest volume builders. The data also shows that new home sales increased by 2.8% in the first quarter of the year but were 1.7% lower than the same quarter in 2015. It is another positive update for the residential construction sector, according to HIA economist Diwa Hopkins and she pointed out that the bounce in March has moderated the downward trend that emerged in the second half of 2015. ‘The current level and trajectory of new home sales and approvals provides a strong signal that new home building activity in 2016 will remain strong,’ she added. She also pointed out that a cut to the official cash rate will also provide additional support to the residential construction sector. A breakdown of the figures show that detached house sales increased in four of the five mainland states, up 13.2% in Queensland, up 9.8% in Western Australia, up 8.3% in New South Wales , up 2.8% in Victoria but down 6.9% in South Australia . Quarter on quarter detached house sales were up 11.2% in Victoria, up 5.8% in Western Australia and up 4.3% in Queensland. Sales declined over this period by 4% in New South Wales and down 5.7% in South Australia. Meanwhile, in an encouraging update for the new home building industry, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows that a total of 19,371 homes were approved for construction in March this year, some 3.7% more than in February. Approvals rose for both multi-unit and detached homes, increasing by 2.4% and 5.1% respectively. Hopkins pointed out that despite the increase during March, the broader trend in approvals is that of decline from the record levels during the middle of last year. During the March 2016 quarter, the number of approvals was lower than in the previous quarter, by 1.6% and also 8.8% lower than 12 months previously. The HIA expects that the number of new homes commencing construction during 2016 to remain very strong at around 200,000, albeit less than 2015’s record of 220,000. A breakdown of the figures shows that during March total seasonally adjusted new home building approvals saw the largest increase in South Australia with a rise of 8.7%, were up 7.3% in Western Australia, up 6.9% in New South Wales, up 5.7% in Queensland and up 3.7% in Victoria but fell by 18.7% in Tasmania. In trend terms, approvals saw a 19% increase in the Australian Capital Territory and an 18.4% fall in the Northern Territory. BOOKMARK THIS PAGE (What is this?)      Source link