By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is in the final stages of its investigation of a fatal balcony collapse at a high-rise condominium complex in Sea Isle City and will release its findings within two weeks, a spokeswoman for the federal agency said Monday.
OSHA had up to six months to conduct its investigation and release the cause of the Feb. 24 balcony collapse at the South Tower of the oceanfront Spinnaker condominiums.
“The case is still open. By August 24, OSHA’s investigation will be concluded and if there are citations, OSHA can release that information,” agency spokeswoman Leni Fortson said in an email.
OSHA, which investigates workplace accidents, disclosed in February that concrete work was being done on the balconies when the fatal accident occurred. It has said little else since then.
Jose Pereira, 43, an employee of Ferguson Contracting, Inc. of Yardley, Pa., was working on the exterior of the Spinnaker’s South Tower when the concrete balcony on the eighth floor collapsed and fell on top of 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.
As part of its investigation, OSHA will decide whether there were any safety violations by Ferguson Contracting during the accident. Ferguson Contracting has no prior history of OSHA violations, the agency previously announced.
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 have not yet been replaced on the exterior of the Spinnaker’s South Tower. Wood support beams were placed underneath the balconies on the other floors 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.
