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Truss collapse clue?

Friday, May 17, 2002

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Accident investigators are looking into whether the cutting of steel locking nuts helped cause the Feb. 12 collapse of a steel truss that killed one ironworker and injured two others at the convention center construction site Downtown.

Soon after the collapse, investigators found nuts that had been cut down from a thickness of two inches to one inch at the site of the fallen truss -- the 13th of 15 trusses that support the new convention center.

The cutting of the "full strength, case-hardened" nuts is being examined by the Site Investigation Committee, according to a letter from a lawyer for Williams Form Engineering Corp., of Grand Rapids, Mich., which made the nuts.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette yesterday obtained a copy of that letter, which was written Feb. 27 by Pittsburgh lawyer Robert C. Klingensmith.

The committee is made up of officials from the convention center's construction management team, which includes Turner Construction Co., P.J. Dick Co. and ATS. Also involved in the accident probe is the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Klingensmith said the inch-thick "jam nuts" -- also known as lock nuts or locking nuts -- had been made from the thicker nuts by someone at the Williams company sometime after Aug. 23. That's when Dick Corp., the steel erector at the convention center, submitted an order for additional nuts for the project.

Dick Corp., a company separate from P.J. Dick, is putting up the trusses for the new $354 million David L. Lawrence Convention Center. The ironworker who was killed, Paul Corsi of Moon, was working for Dick Corp.

The 2-inch-thick nuts, made of hardened steel, were attached to long, threaded bolts and held in place by 1-inch-thick jam nuts. The long steel bolts were used to connect the steel trusses to a concrete foundation.

"The jam nuts provided [to Dick Corp.] were not the 1-inch-tall jam nuts in production by [Williams] ... but rather non-case-hardened, 2-inch-tall, full-strength nuts which were saw cut to provide a 1-inch-tall nut suitable for use as a jam nut," Klingensmith wrote.

"The decision to provide Dick Corp. with 'cut nuts' as jam nuts was made at the [Williams] manufacturing level because of utilization of the nut production machines on other products and the necessity to provide a suitable jam nut in an efficient and timely manner," Klingensmith wrote.

Exactly what role, if any, the sliced nuts played in the collapse of the steel structure isn't known.

Neither Klingensmith nor Dick Corp. officials returned phone calls yesterday.

Kate Dugan, an OSHA spokeswoman in Philadelphia, declined to comment on the investigation and said the agency has six months to complete its work.

More details could emerge June 5 at a coroner's open inquest, said Michael Colarusso, the lawyer for ironworker Walter Pasewicz Jr., who sat on the collapsing beam as it fell 90 feet to the ground.

Pittsburgh lawyer Michael C. George will preside at the inquest.

Colarusso said the investigation committee's work has been complicated by the refusal of Dick Corp. officials and employees to discuss the collapse or provide information. Colarusso said Pasewicz is still suffering from mental trauma caused by the collapse and is afraid to go back to work in high places. Pasewicz also suffers from back and neck injuries, has lost 20 pounds since the accident and is losing hair, Colarusso said.

He also said he was upset at the decision by the Sports & Exhibition Authority and its insurer, American Zurich Insurance Co., to deny Pasewicz workers' compensation benefits of $662 a week.

"Although an injury took place, the employee is not disabled as a result of this injury" under the state Workers' Compensation Act, according to a "Notice of Workers' Compensation Denial" the sports authority sent to Pasewicz last Friday.

Colarusso said he plans to appeal to the state workers' compensation board.

Sports authority spokesman Greg Yesko said he couldn't comment on the denial of benefits or the progress of the investigation.