More than 100 construction workers ran for their lives at a Sydney CBD
building site when scaffolding that forced a work shutdown last year buckled
in a busy street.
The 20-metre high scaffolding buckled at the Castlereagh St building site
between Market and Park streets about 2.30pm (AEDT) on Thursday,
police said.
No one was injured but emergency services cordoned off a large section of
the street, with fears debris could be spread for hundreds of metres either
side of the building if the scaffolding does collapse.
Police Superintendent Michael Fuller said engineers would work to secure the
site but warned their efforts could take several days.
Nearby buildings, including part of the Sheraton Hotel, had been evacuated
as a precaution, Supt Fuller said.
Castlereagh St between Park and Market streets was still closed to pedestrians
this morning, a spokesperson for NSW police said.
Police Rescue officers had inspected the building and accounted for all the
workers on the site, he said.
A WorkCover spokeswoman sent four inspectors to the site to determine the
cause of the incident.The statutory authority issued a prohibition notice to Built,
the company in charge of the project, for all work to cease until the problem
is rectified.The spokeswoman said the Construction Forestry Mining
Energy Union (CFMEU) raised issues with the safety of the scaffolding last
year, which led to a work prohibition order late in 2008.
"It would have been in relation to something to do with the way the scaffolding
had been put up," she said."It was a safety issue in relation to the scaffolding."
Built complied by rectifying the problem but CFMEU assistant state secretary
Brian Parker said the union had consistently identified the safety of the
scaffolding as an issue for the past 18 months.
"We've had a continuous problem with the structure of the scaffold and we
knew at one point or another a catastrophe like this was going to happen,
" Mr Parker told AAP."There's been componentry missing on a regular basis.
It gets rectified then there's componentry missing again in other areas.
"We're now led to believe at this point of time that one of the causes of the
collapse of the scaffold is missing componentry."Mr Parker said workers
were still shaken hours after the incident."They heard the metal bending,
they heard the screeching, they said it felt like it was an earthquake and they
ran for their lives," he said.
Engineers were expected to work through the night to secure the site.
A total of 110 workers were on the site when the scaffolding buckled.
Attempts to contact Built for comment were unsuccessful.
The incident came two days after three workers were injured when six
levels of scaffolding collapsed at a Melbourne worksite.
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