Stratford/Milford, CT -Crane Collaspe/Water Rescue 2-17-04

[Guest BrotherFF]

Date: 2/17/04

Times:1200

Location: Route 15 (Merrit Pkwy) SB @ Sikorsky Bridge

Frequency: Multiple, channels of agencies listed

Units Operating: Milford Fire, Stratford Fire, CTSP,USCG,CTDEP,Bridgeport Fire

Description Of Incident: Bridge under demololition/construction, report of 2 cranes fell from bridge into the Houstonic river below with possible subjects trapped. Boats and Dive units operating, CTSP helo in area and USCG enroute. Stratford units had just cleared from a pin job further down on the pkwy.

Writer-BrotherFF

I know this is not Westchester, but I found it to be an area interesting event.

[Guest BrotherFF]

This is what News 12 is reporting now. I'm sure they'll have more information and video later. Not sure how accurate their information is, it sounded alot worse.

http://www.news12.com/CT

Construction worker injured after cranes collapse at the Sikorsky Memorial Bridge  

 

 

(02/17/04) STRATFORD - A crane accident at the Sikorsky Memorial Bridge injures one and closes the southbound lanes of the Merritt Parkway Tuesday.  

According to reports, two cranes went off the barges where crews are working on the bridge. A piece of the bridge, which was being taken down, is lying on a barge but it's not clear whether that piece actually fell when the cranes collapsed.  

The bridge connects the Merritt Parkway and the Wilbur Cross Parkway.  

 

[x635 4,066]

Photo:CTPost.com

 

Huge cranes fall, 1 dies

Worker caught under water at Sikorsky bridge

By GREG SHULAS ctpost.com

STRATFORD — A construction worker from Alabama was killed when two cranes collapsed beneath the Sikorsky Memorial Bridge on Tuesday, trapping one operator inside his crane's cab as it plunged into the icy Housatonic River.

The cranes were removing a massive steel beam from the old steel-grate bridge linking the Merritt and Wilbur Cross parkways about noon when the beam apparently buckled, causing the barge to violently and suddenly tilt.

One of the huge machines plunged off the barge while the other fell on its side. The operator of the second crane was unharmed in the spectacular accident, authorities said.

Workers from Balfour Beatty Construction jumped into the water to save their colleague. They pulled the unconscious worker from the water and performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, authorities said.  

Ned Gerard  

Tragic day: In a view from Milford, the tracks of one of the cranes that fell poke from the water, where it settled upside down in the river on the far side of the Sterling barge. The bridge section can be seen crumpled to the left.  

 

The crane operator, Charlie Jordan, 60, of Satsuma, Ala., was taken to Bridgeport Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:55 p.m. from unspecified injuries, a hospital spokesman confirmed.

There were no other injuries.

Sgt. J. Paul Vance, a spokesman for the State Police, promised a thorough probe. The accident took place as the cranes, each with booms multi-stories high, dismantled the old, closed bridge across the Housatonic. It was part of a nearly $100 million project replacing the old span with a new parkway bridge.

A preliminary investigation showed the accident occurred when the steel girder, estimated to be 192 feet long, buckled as it was being moved, causing a dramatic weight shift on the barge.

A state police investigator wrote in a preliminary report that, "While attempting to move a steel beam off the bridge, the steel beam buckled, causing the weight to shift. The crane then overturned into the river with the victim in the cab of the crane."

At a press conference, Vance said the cranes were working simultaneously on the barges. He said it was premature to rule on the accident's cause.

"There are a lot of unanswered questions," he said.

Investigators from the state Department of Public Safety and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration descended on the scene following the accident.

Vance said detectives from the State Police Major Crime Squad, along with a diving unit, began collecting evidence Tuesday afternoon. The public safety department's crane inspector will play a prominent role in the investigation, he said.

Stratford Assistant Fire Chief Michael Hostetter said the response by emergency services to the accident scene was massive.

"By the time that we got there, [the victim] was already out of the water," he said. "He was unresponsive."

The accident forced the temporary shutdown of a southbound lane on Route 15 to allow emergency vehicles to get to the scene, Vance said.

A representative of the contractor, Balfour Beatty Construction Inc. of the United Kingdom, declined comment. The firm is the primary contractor on the $96 million bridge project, which began in 1999.

Nationwide, Balfour Beatty has been cited 80 times by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration for workplace safety violations found on 100 projects between 1996 and this year.

Federal officials also reported 10 accidents at the firm's work sites.

The company recently agreed to pay $2,500 to resolve the most recent violations stemming from an October 2001 accident on the same project. In that incident, an excavator lifting a piece of equipment fell into the Housatonic.

Agencies responding to the accident included the Stratford and Milford fire and police departments, Stratford Emergency Medical Services and Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.'s fire department.

The state Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Coast Guard were notified because of the impact of fluids leaking from the submerged crane. Containment booms were placed in the river around the crane to prevent possible contamination.

The Sikorsky Memorial Bridge is a 1,800-foot-long structure that carries Route 15 over the river between New Haven and Fairfield counties.

Last November, the state Department of Transportation opened a new bridge, replacing the structure built in 1940. An estimated 38,000 cars cross the span daily.

Tuesday's accident and the subsequent investigation will temporarily halt work at the site, although traffic will not be affected, police said.

Staff writers Aaron Leo, Steven Scarpa and Ken Dixon contributed to this report.