Crews remove excavator from Washington parking garage
Construction equipment collapsed into pit, overturned during demo
Crews began removing the excavator that collapsed into a hole and overturned last week while demolishing the Courthouse Square parking garage in Washington.
Workers could be seen piling gravel around the excavator Monday afternoon as they maneuvered three mobile cranes around the site to remove the heavy equipment from the pit.
Shortly after 3 p.m., the crane positioned above the overturned excavator flanked by a couple of big rig rear-mounted cranes on either side began to slowly pull the construction machinery up in a tedious process that brought dozens of curious onlookers watching the unusual sight from a safe distance away.
Creaking sounds could be heard as the crews flexed the wire pulleys and slowly but methodically raised the excavator up from its resting place, where it’s been since the March 3 accident after it apparently collapsed through a lower level near the entrance to the former parking garage. The operator was not injured in the incident and was able to get out of the vehicle on his own power, but the demolition work has been halted for a week and it’s uncertain when it will restart.
West Beau Street was closed in the area in order to give crews room to maneuver the heavy machinery, and similar traffic restrictions were expected to be in place today as workers finished the work.
County Commission Chairman Nick Sherman said the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration just concluded its investigation into the incident, allowing the retrieval process to begin with the hopes of demolition beginning again soon.
“We’ve heard from the construction company and they have the plan in place to retrieve the excavator,” Sherman said.
Sherman said the county received a letter from Adamo Demolition last week taking responsibility for the incident.
“The construction company admitted fault,” Sherman said. “The county is not on the hook for anything, and that’s the most important thing.”
The Observer-Reporter newspaper filed an open records request Monday asking for a copy of the letter, but had not received a response by the end of the day. Details on how the incident occurred have not been made public and it’s unknown when OSHA’s incident report will be available to the public.
Last March, the county commissioners hired Adamo Demolition and paid the Detroit-based company $1.555 million to raze the Courthouse Parking parking garage and former county government’s office building that was constructed in the late 1970s. Once the parking garage is demolished, crews will be able to work on the seven-story tower. Once the site is cleared, the county intends to build its new public safety building on the property.