Balconies Being Rebuilt at Site of Fatal Collapse in Sea Isle

By DONALD WITTKOWSKI An oceanfront condominium complex in Sea Isle City is rebuilding the balconies where a construction worker was killed in February during a collapse on the seventh and eighth floors. The city has granted two permits allowing a contractor for the Spinnaker Condominiums to replace the two balconies and to erect the scaffolding needed for the work, Sea Isle spokeswoman Katherine Custer said. An office worker at the Spinnaker declined to comment Thursday. Valcourt Building Services, the contractor rebuilding the balconies, did not return a message seeking comment. On Feb. 24, a construction worker, Jose Pereira, 43, was killed when the concrete balcony on the eighth floor of the Spinnaker’s South Tower collapsed and crushed him. He was standing on a balcony on the seventh floor. Two other workers were on the balcony on the eighth floor when it collapsed, but they suffered only minor injuries and were treated at the scene. Ferguson Contracting Inc., a Yardley, Pa., contractor that was working on the balconies when the collapse happened, was fined just over $18,000 by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration for a series of “serious” safety violations related to the accident. “Employees were cutting and chipping cement balconies as part of a restoration project. One of the balconies broke free while they were performing that work and crushed an employee that was working on the balcony below. The balcony was not inspected by a competent person as the work progressed to determine if shoring or bracing was needed,” OSHA said in a statement when the fines were announced in August. The high-rise Spinnaker condominium complex dates to the 1970s. As part of the investigative process, Ferguson Contracting was given three options in response to the proposed fines – pay them without question, challenge them or request a meeting with OSHA to possible have the penalties reduced or eliminated. Ferguson has not publicly commented on the fines or the accident. Altogether, the company was fined $18,082. OSHA has ordered the company to correct the violations and provide proof that it has done so. The violations cited by OSHA stemming from the balcony collapse included:

• “The employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to the hazard of being caught in a structural collapse.”

• “The employer did not identify and evaluate the respiratory hazard(s) in the workplace; including a reasonable estimate of employee exposures to respiratory hazards and identification of the contaminant’s chemical state and physical (characteristics).”

• “Employees were performing restoration work on existing exterior balconies which included chipping and cutting operations. The employer did not have a hazardous communication program as required by the standard.”

• “Employer did not instruct employees in the recognition and avoidance of unsafe conditions such as removing excessive amount of concrete during balcony repair, sawing through rebar in the balcony, and shoring and stabilization of balcony prior to work starting.”

• “Vertical lifelines were not fastened to a fixed safe point of anchorage, independent of the scaffold, and protected from sharp edges and abrasion.”

A photo from Feb. 28, four days after the accident, shows the destruction of the balcony collapse. Following the balcony collapse, Sea Isle shut down virtually all access to the Spinnaker’s South Tower while an engineering company determined whether the high-rise building is structurally sound. An engineering report completed in March concluded that the structural integrity of the South Tower “remains intact” despite the balcony collapse. Once the building was deemed safe, the city allowed residents and business owners to return to the South Tower in late March. The balconies on the seventh and eighth floors are just now being replaced following the issuance of the city’s two permits. Previously, wood support beams were placed underneath the balconies on the other floors of the South Tower to strengthen them after the collapse. The Spinnaker condominiums were built in the early 1970s and include twin north and south towers nine stories tall overlooking the ocean at 3500-3700 Boardwalk. Each condo has a balcony facing the ocean, while most of the three-bedroom units also have a larger balcony on the side of the building, according to a chronology of the Spinnaker’s construction at History – Spinnaker (spinnakersic.com. It was one of the side balconies that collapsed on the eighth floor of the South Tower.