FLAGSHIP COLLAPSEÂ KILLS 
The 65-year-old demolition worker from Utah who was trapped after a portion of the Flagship Hotel collapsed on him yesterday died from his injuries less than an hour after he was rescued. Landry’s, the owner of the hotel, is tearing it down in order to add amusement rides to the 25th St. pier it sits on. An investigation is currently underway, and Galveston’s fire chief tells reporter Laura Elder that there’s still danger of another collapse: “Ardent, the contractor of record, could have brought in subcontractors to handle the job, and the city was in the process of determining Tuesday what company employed the injured man, city of Galveston spokeswoman Alicia Cahill said.
Crews demolished the hotel to the second floor slab. It rested, partially collapsed, at an angle with the westernmost edge appearing to touch the floor of the pier.
The injured man was in a void of concrete, [Fire chief Jeff] Smith said.
‘Entrapment time was about 20 minutes, and he had about 1,000 pounds of weight on top of him,’ Smith said.” [Galveston County Daily News; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Click2Houston
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65 years old working heavy demolition = impressive, rest in peace.
The demolition firm seems to be wildly incompetent. First they get caught dumping debris into the water, and now they are letting their employees get killed. What kind of shitshow are they running?
Two Companies walked away from that Project. This was a disaster waiting to happen. Post tension structures are incredibly difficult structures to demolish safely. The Contractor appeared to do a good job up to a point. Why the second floor slab is not shored should be the second question asked after they ask why was the worker in a position to have the slab fall on him. Low bid gets the job!!! Now you will see the Owner and his General Contractor distance themselves from their Chosen Sub Contractor. They should ALL be held accountable for this.
There’s no good way to die, but how scary that must have been for that poor guy. It’s heartbreaking, really.
I sen this place. Looks too high.
My comment would certainly get deleted.
Mine did.
Glad my advice was followed in re: the “unfortunate” headline in any event.
We do all make mistakes and glad this one was corrected.
“Low bid gets the job!!!”
The reality is this isn’t always true. Many developers avoid the lowest bidder (especially if it is significantly lower than the next to lowest bid) because they likely missed something when making the bid.
This is standard for government and private jobs. Bids are compared against engineer’s estimates. When several bids are present, there is usually a trend between the bidders. A bid coming in really low is often tossed just as the really high bids.
kjb you’re right, low bid doesn’t always get the job. 90% of the time they do. I’m out there everyday bidding work, public and private, this is what’s going on. I have been fortunate to be awarded work being second lowest, even third, but it’s very rare. I work for a Contractor that has one of the best safety records in our industry, and that doesn’t count much either when it comes to public, or private Commercial work. In the Industrial arena your safety track record and experience will come into consideration more.