Excavator used in Courthouse Square demo topples into trench
The large excavator being used to raze the Courthouse Square parking garage in Washington overturned Tuesday morning and toppled into a trench, bringing the demolition project to a screeching halt.
The operator got out of the vehicle on his own power and was checked by medics at the scene before being released.
His identity was not immediately known and it was not clear whether he was working for Adamo Demolition Co., which is in charge of razing the parking garage and Courthouse Square building.
“A few more inches and that guy might not be here,” said Washington Mayor Jojo Burgess, who visited the scene, although the city is not involved in the demolition project. “And he walked away without a scratch.”
Burgess said he spoke to the equipment operator while he was being checked in the ambulance, and he appeared to be uninjured and was more upset about the situation and what happened.
“You’d have to check my drawers after that,” Burgess said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Cellphone video taken from a county worker at the Family Court Center captured the moment the excavator toppled into the trench. In the video, one construction worker can be seen spraying water on the site to keep the dust down while the excavator operator moved the vehicle forward before it plunged into the trench and disappeared from view.
West Beau Street near the county courthouse was closed for several hours while emergency crews responded to the incident shortly after 9 a.m., but the road was reopened to “local traffic” around noon. A large crane will eventually be brought in to remove the excavator, which remained lying on its side buried in the trench as of Tuesday afternoon with a fence protecting the public from entering the area.
It’s not known when the excavator will be removed, although Burgess expected the demolition project to be halted for several days while the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration reviewed the incident.
“In my opinion, they’re going to have to halt it for a minute,” Burgess said. “OSHA will have to come in and investigate the incident.”
Washington County public safety officials met with Adamo Demolition work crews to figure out the next steps following the incident. County spokeswoman Nicole Ford directed questions about the situation to the Detroit-based demolition company.
“County leaders have requested a public safety incident report from the general contractor including the name of the operator and the company he was employed by as well as an update on the operator’s condition,” Ford said in a written statement.
A phone call to Adamo’s headquarters in Detroit was not immediately returned.
Last March, the commissioners unanimously approved a $1.555 million bid from Adamo to bring down the Courthouse Square building and parking garage. Another $1.44 million contract was approved in August to perform wall-shoring work ahead of the demolition.
The work to demolish the parking garage began Monday and was expected to continue for about a month before crews moved on to razing the six-story building that had been the county office building since the late 1970s. Now it’s unclear when the demolition project will resume or what additional safety measures might be put in place to ensure there is not another accident.