Investigators said Wednesday that it could be months before they determine what caused a 165-ton truss to topple and to crush an ironworker at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center construction site.
"We really don't know what the cause was," Allegheny County Executive Jim Roddey said after touring the Downtown site yesterday afternoon. "We have some ideas, and we know where the failure was, but we don't know why the failure did occur."
Determining what caused the accident will be the focus of the investigation being conducted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA guidelines require the federal agency to complete its investigation within six months.
Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy, who toured the site with Roddey yesterday, said there is no evidence of a design flaw with the convention center. Both men stressed that the fatal collapse Tuesday was not caused by pressure put on workers to meet deadlines.
With the American flag lowered to half staff atop the partially completed building yesterday, OSHA inspectors began interviewing witnesses and inspecting the site where the collapsed truss killed Paul Corsi, 37, of Moon Township.
A half-dozen Pittsburgh homicide detectives took measurements and pictures at the scene and interviewed everyone who witnessed the collapse. All of the information they collected will be turned over to the Allegheny County Coroner's and District Attorney's offices for review, said city assistant police Chief William Mullen.
"We look really for any criminal aspect to all of this," Mullen said. "We're concerned with seeing if there's any gross negligence involved, and that's it."
Sports & Exhibition Authority Executive Director Steve Leeper said it is too soon to determine when workers will be able to return to the job site. He said he doesn't expect any lost time to have significant impact on the remainder of the construction schedule.
"Some of the workers came in today (Wednesday) and just determined it wasn't appropriate for them to continue work, and, frankly, we respect that," Leeper said. "It's very likely most of the trades will be back on site tomorrow (Thursday), but, obviously, some of the trades won't be able to start work because of the fact that the site is presently being investigated."
Leeper used a news conference yesterday to squelch widespread speculation about the cause of the accident.
"There could be a number of different reasons for why that steel collapsed. We're going to wait until we get all of the information before we come out with a final view on that," he said.
Leeper said he expects "broad" insurance policies purchased by the authority to cover any additional costs for the $331.7 million project. He said it is too soon to determine if the fallen truss could be repaired, or if a new one would need to be fabricated.
The collapse of the 13th of 15 trusses has baffled construction officials, who said each of the previous 12 trusses had been installed in the same manner without incident. Shortly before 3 p.m. Tuesday, Corsi, Donald Lenigan, 41, of Mt. Washington, and Walter Pasewicz, 39, of West View, were standing on the 13th truss and attaching floor beams that would connect it to the 12th truss.
The truss was anchored to the convention center's foundation caissons at 18 of 27 connection points. Workers had completed the installation of all 14 of the second-level floor beams and were installing the fifth or sixth floor beam on the third level when the accident occurred.
Murphy said the trusses aren't fully secured until the cables that make up the building's signature roof are wrapped around each truss. The cables run north to south over the roof of the building in a groove on each truss to help reinforce the truss's connection to the building. Cables have been applied to the first eight trusses.
"Understand, that when you're dealing with 160 tons of steel, there are inherent pressure and stresses put onto that until the whole structure is put together," Murphy said. "There was stress on certain points of this truss, and, for whatever reason, there was a failure at those pressure points — that's what we're trying to understand."
Police detectives said the workers they interviewed spoke of hearing several loud pops like "shotgun blasts" before the steel structure began to fall. Police collected several broken bolts for analysis.
When the truss gave way, Lenigan and Pasewicz were saved by their safety harnesses, which were connected to the 12th truss. But Corsi, whose harness was fastened to the falling truss, was thrown to the ground and crushed by the falling steel structure.
The steelworkers involved in the collapse were wearing a four-point safety harness as required by OSHA, Roddey said.
The harness is like putting on a jacket, said Ed Selker, assistant area director of OSHA. Straps wrap over the wearer's shoulders and under the legs attaching to a belt around the waist, while a rope attaches to the back of the harness.
Both Lenigan and Pasewicz were treated at Allegheny General Hospital on the North Side. Lenigan was released Tuesday, and Pasewicz returned home yesterday.
Both men declined comment yesterday.
"I'm just not ready to talk about it," Lenigan said.
Roddey and Murphy said it appeared as though all three men followed appropriate safety procedures.
Each truss is about 100 feet long and 90 feet tall and is designed to support each of the convention center's three levels and the cable stay roof. They were fabricated by the ADF Group in Terrebonne, Quebec, and assembled on site.
Murphy said investigators do not believe there was a problem with the steel used to make the trusses. ADF Group officials did not return telephone calls yesterday.
Almost all of the 600 people working on the project opted to take yesterday off. Others arrived at the site in the morning to talk with grief counselors provided by Dick Corp.
Five Dick Corp. workers were killed in October, when a box truck veered out of control at a work site near the Vanport Bridge on Route 60 in Beaver County. Prior to that, the company had not lost a worker on a Pennsylvania job site since May 1992, when Donald E. Whitmer, 25, fell 70 feet off a bridge that the company was repairing in Charleroi, Washington County, according to OSHA records.
Dick Corp. was ordered in 1996 to pay a $400,000 settlement to Whitmer's widow and her son.
"The Dick Corp. has a tremendous safety record," Roddey said, citing a recent OSHA safety award for work at PNC Bank's Firstside Operations Center, Downtown.
Jillian Costic, manager of the Pittsburgh RV Show, said she expects the accident won't have an impact next Tuesday — the move-in date for her show. The Pittsburgh RV Show will christen the first phase of the convention center. The show opens to the public Feb. 23.
"I'm really, really sorry about the accident, and that's what it was — an accident," Costic said. "Those guys are hard workers and dedicated and wonderful people. I feel horrible for the families."
A second phase of the convention center is scheduled to open in October. The third and final phase — where the accident occurred — is expected to open in March 2003. The first event in the fully constructed convention center will be the 2003 Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show.
"We are very sad that, on this building we are so excited about, we now have this tragedy to contend with," Murphy said.
