Oakland construction site: Scaffolding and concrete give way, 19 injured

Scaffolding and wet concrete gave way at a building site in the San Francisco Bay Area on May 26, leaving construction workers dangling from metal cables and rebar and injuring at least 19 people, officials said according to local media and the Associated Press.

The partial collapse occurred after workers had laid down what appeared to be a concrete second floor on the building in the in the city’s Pill Hill area.

The site, 3093 Broadway, is the former Bay City Chevy dealership and slated to become 423 wood-frame apartments over two stories that include concrete podiums and retail space on the ground floor, according to the website of the general contractor, Johnstone Moyer Inc., the East Bay Times reported. A spokeswoman for the developer, CityView, did not immediately have information.

The project is part of a larger plan to turn the old Auto Row on Broadway into a neighborhood with homes and retail. The construction site abuts Sprouts Market.

 

At the building collapse, video taken by a worker in the seconds after the collapse and obtained by local television station KGO showed at least three workers in hardhats and yellow and orange vests in midair, clinging to metal cables and rods to keep from falling.

The AP reported:

Colleagues scrambled with ladders and lumber to help them climb down. Other workers pulled themselves and each other out of thick, wet concrete.

Authorities described the injuries as mostly minor, including cuts and bruises. Emergency crews transported the injured to three local hospitals, said Clayton Warren, a spokesman at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center.

The cause of the collapse was not immediately known, and California work-safety officials were investigating.