Work resumes at South Station Tower one week after steel beam fell hundreds of feet from upper floor
The MBTA says work has resumed at South Station Tower one week after a steel beam plummeted hundreds of feet after becoming dislodged from the upper floors of the building.
“The stop work notice, issued by the MBTA, has been lifted,” announced the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Wednesday afternoon.
Construction work was halted immediately on the $1.5 billion skyscraper project after the beam fell from one of the upper levels of the tower, still under construction, and landed in an exclusion zone on the ninth floor, shattering a pair of windows along the way.
The incident interfered with the T’s transportation operations and posed a risk to public safety which is why work was shut down for a week, according to officials. The federal work site agency OSHA was investigating.
Boston Deputy Fire Chief Brian Tully said no one was injured because the beam landed on a cordoned-off part of the building.
Surveillance video from across the street shows the construction equipment narrowly missing a moving van and landing near a cab stand.
Wilky Bonheur told Boston 25 News that he crouched down in his taxi fearing more debris could come raining down.
“For me, I thought everything was collapsing,” said Bonheur. “It came like, boom, boom, boom, all the way down from the top.”
The construction equipment left a large divot in the concrete steps away from Bonheur’s taxi. “Thank god I’m alive,” he said.
A representative for the construction company doing the work on the project, Suffolk, confirmed an incident at the project site and noted, that the “safety of our workers and communities is our number one priority,” and were assisting with the investigation.
No additional details were provided.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
