SAN ANTONIO -- It has been six weeks since columns for a parking garage under construction at University Hospital came crashing down. The Valentine’s Day collapse left a pile of crumbled concrete and twisted metal. Investigators have an inkling of an idea now about what went wrong.
February 14, 2011, huge support columns for a multi-level parking garage at University Hospital suddenly collapsed. Two workers were hit by the falling debris. The most critically injured man was finally released from the hospital yesterday. Both are in rehab.
Today, hospital officials and the construction company revealed primary causes pinpointed by the ongoing investigation. Those include questions about the adequacy of the bracing around a column that had been repaired and about when and how grout was used to provide stability while the structure was being erected.
“There will be more rigorous inspections on a daily basis of bracing that’s put in place, of grout procedures and the erection procedures,” said Mark Webb, vice president of Facilities Development and Project Management for University Health System.
Little has changed at the corner of Medical and Wurzbach. Work on this portion of the parking garage has stopped at least for the next couple of months.
The construction company said it is too soon to point fingers and saw who is at fault. “Right now, we are in the preliminary stages of discovering what occurred,” stated Jef Johnson, project executive for Zachry Vaughn Layton. “Once we discover what occurred, we’ll be able to figure that responsibility from there.”
“The safety of our patients and visitors is paramount,” Webb stressed. “And as we move forward with resuming construction of the part of the main structure of the garage, we will make sure that we ensure everyone’s safety, including the construction workers.”
Work on the rest of the garage and the hospital tower itself, a multi-million dollar project, continues on schedule.
