Last Monday, 1 construction workers was killed and 5 others were injured after a section of newly placed concrete collapsed on a downtown Cincinnati construction site.
As crews were placing concrete on the 7th floor of the structure, the forms suddenly gave way, ultimately killing one man who was on the 6th floor and injuring 5 others. The injured were all released quickly from area hospitals and it was not clear how many were injured by the collapse or the rescue efforts.
Cincinnati.com reported that some workers had suffered burns to their legs as they were shoveling through the curing concrete during rescue efforts. It took rescue crews roughly 30 total hours to recover the body of Preston Todd Delph, the man killed by the collapse.
According to reports, Delph, age 58, worked for Gateway Concrete Forming and was actively monitoring the concrete placement from below when it collapsed.
The 7th floor will be the top of the parking structure that will hold 584 vehicles in it and 264 apartments above it. The building will also include 22,000 square feet of street-level commercial space, according to the project’s website. You can see construction progress photos of the site prior to the collapse on the project’s Flickr page.
This collapse is reminiscent of the recent Hard Rock Hotel building collapse in New Orleans. The only silver lining to this most recent tragedy is that the damage was much less destructive and allowed rescue teams to quickly recover the victim’s body. 2 of the 3 men killed by the New Orleans collapse have sadly still not been recovered, due to the instability of the structure.
Overhead footage of the Cincinnati collapse was captured by the Associated Press, which you can watch below:
