CityCenter Project Claims Another Worker Life
By Tony Illia
The Las Vegas Strip's bad luck run continued for construction workers on May 31 with yet another grisly jobsite death. On Saturday, around 7:00 a.m., a man died at the $8.4 billion, 18.67 million-sq-ft CityCenter development. It marks the project's sixth fatality since breaking ground in June 2006. Perini Building Co., Phoenix, is the general contractor, with New York City-based Tishman Construction Corp. as project manager. The victim whose named was not immediately released was killed by a hammerhead tower crane. He was oiling the crane's counterweight track system when he got stuck and was crushed to death, says Scott Allison, Clark County Fire Dept. spokesman. State law requires crane owner-operators to maintain and inspect the tower cranes throughout the construction project. The 76-acre, six-tower CityCenter project will use 14 Terex-Comedil 35-ton tower cranes. The jobsite was temporarily shut-down as Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials investigated the accident.
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PHOTO Caption: CityCenter claimed its sixth fatality.
Photo courtesy Perini Building Co. |
There are currently more than 20 tower cranes currently operating throughout the Las Vegas area, reports Nevada OSHA. The state boasts some of the nation's strictest crane operating requirements due to a 320-ft-tall tower crane collapse in 1994 that killed three people at the Riverside Casino parking lot in Laughlin, 90 miles southeast of Las Vegas.
The accident prompted stricter state laws calling for clear zones when assembling or dismantling cranes, or conducting "highly hazardous lifts." They also require annual certification of cranes' mechanical lifting parts, plus certification each time a tower crane is erected. Fifteen days before a builder puts up a tower crane, the company must notify Nevada OSHA, bring in building plans and meet with OSHA officials. The same process covers crane dismantling. All crane operators must undergo extensive training and earn state certification.
"When you think about just how far up these crane towers are, most are anywhere from 300 to 600 ft up there, and the amount of weight they carry and their massive steel construction, then you realize that when one of these comes down and you're underneath it, that's it for you," said Allison.
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