Same firm that built parking deck involved with Botanical Garden walkway
June 29, 2009 at 6:19 pm by Thomas Wheatley in NewsCBS Atlanta reports that Hardin Construction, the big-name firm that managed the construction of the partially-collapsed Cyntergy parking deck in Midtown Atlanta, was also involved in the construction of the Atlanta Botanical Garden walkway that collapsed in December 2008. One worker was killed and 18 others injured in that accident.
The company, which was founded in Atlanta, is behind such notable buildings as 30 Allen Plaza, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation office, Terminus in Buckhead and — well, hell, a bunch of other buildings in metro Atlanta. In April, Hardin was selected by the University of Georgia to build two new parking decks on campus (PDF of the announcement).
A Hardin spokeswoman sent CL this statement:
We were the construction manager on the entire Centergy project, which included two office buildings and the parking facility. The parking facility was completed in December of 2002
For more information on how this deck was designed, fabricated and erected, your best source of information is Metromont Corporation who was responsible for the structure and chosen because of their expertise in precast/prestressed concrete building systems.
We contacted Metromont’s Greenville, S.C. office, but it’s closed for the day. We’ll update when we hear word. Back to the statement!
To put this incident in perspective there are 1415 spaces in this deck. One section was involved, and it is estimated that approximately 35 spaces were affected.
We are just thankful at this point there are no reports of injuries.
Hardin was fined earlier this month by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for inadequately installing scaffolding towers to support the Botanical Garden walkway. Hardin planned to appeal the fine. We can’t find the exact date, but the Atlanta City Council recently recognized Hardin with a proclamation for its immediate response to the accident and the families of the workers involved (PDF of proclamation). The AJC reports no code violations have been reported at the deck. That’s mainly because it hasn’t been inspected since it was constructed — a common practice for the city, the paper reports.
We’ve sent Hardin some more questions. Tony Wilbert has some good background on the deal that went into constructing the $130-million Centergy retail and commercial complex, which the parking deck serves.
June 29th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
You’re the mayor of shark city!
June 29th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Meanwhile… Here’s Your Tweet of the Day:
@capnken: The state of AJC reporting – “Phone calls to the L.A. Fitness at that intersection went unanswered.”
June 29th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
You know, if they had just stopped at “for more information, go ask Metromont,” that would have been a pretty effective deflection, even if they were just passing the buck.
But they couldn’t stop with just that, huh? With their “perspective” statement, they went from just passing the buck like I’d expect many companies to do to being downright flippant, almost defiant about it. The lack of contrition and lack of compassion there is mindbending.
June 30th, 2009 at 12:42 am
Was one of the questions that CL asked how Hardin won the bids for the two collapsed structures? The Atlanta Botanical Garden didn’t bid out their work. The Botanical Garden gave the work to Hardin with little research and investigation. What happened in this latest debacle? Do the same firms get all the work regardless of their performance?