Home >  Local News

Coroner holds inquest on accident that killed convention center worker

Thursday, June 06, 2002

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Construction workers at the convention center used the wrong type of nuts to fasten into place a huge steel truss, which later collapsed, killing one ironworker and injuring two others, according to testimony at a coroner's inquest yesterday.

	Ironworker Matthew Abate at yesterday's hearing -- He picked up what turned out to be the wrong type of nut. (Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette)

Robert Elmendorf, a metallurgist hired after the collapse by the convention center general contractor, Turner-P.J. Dick-ATS, told the inquest that he thinks the use of the wrong nuts played a significant role in the Feb. 12 collapse at the new David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown.

It created "a dangerous and threatening condition," Elmendorf said in answer to a question from Deputy District Attorney Edward Borkowski.

Two ironworkers who worked on the collapsed truss testified they were unaware they were using the wrong nuts.

Paul Corsi, an ironworker from Moon, was killed when the four-story truss fell. The accident is under investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is expected to issue a report in August.

The truss that collapsed was the 13th in a series of 15 steel support trusses that run from Penn Avenue to the river and form the principal north-south support for the building.

Elmendorf said each steel truss is connected to a concrete caisson or base by eight threaded rods -- each one 18 inches long and 1 inch in diameter.

Each of the eight rods is fastened to the truss and concrete caisson by two pairs of nuts, two at each end of the rod. One nut is 2 inches thick, made of hardened steel and is black in color. The other nut is a 3/4-inch locking nut, silver in color.

But ironworkers who assembled the 13th truss testified yesterday that they were not supplied with the 2-inch-thick black nuts. Instead, they used 1-inch-thick nuts to fasten the rods in place.

Use of the 2-inch, hardened-steel bolts provided a lot of locking power, Elmendorf said. Use of a 1-inch nut would not have provided as much strength to hold the truss in place, he said.

Elmendorf said the 1-inch shiny nuts, which are not heat-treated, would have a "lower hardness" than the proper 2-inch-long nuts, which were strengthened and blackened by heat.

He said the shorter nuts also would have "less thread engagement" with the rods and thus would provide less strength than the longer nuts.

Asked directly by Borkowski about the cause of the collapse, Elmendorf said, "The most significant thing I have seen was that there were no 2-inch, heat-treated nuts found at the caisson joint at line 13."

One of the injured ironworkers, Matthew Abate, told a coroner's inquest that he went into a Dick Corp. construction trailer at the work site and picked up what turned out to be the wrong type of nut.

Abate, who was hired by the Dick Corp. out of the ironworkers union hall, said he'd never had any training by his employer on which nuts to use to attach to the threaded rods. He said the day of the collapse was the first time he had ever been told to go to the construction trailer to pick up the connecting rods and nuts.

Borkowski asked if Dick Corp. had ever given him training on which type of nuts to use, and Abate said he had received no such training.

Later at the hearing, another ironworker, Dorsey Morehead, also said the crew had been given no training.

"I was never told what size nuts to use on the rods," Morehead said, adding he had never been assigned to fetch the rods and nuts from the construction trailer.

It wasn't clear yesterday why the wrong-sized, 1-inch nuts had been placed in a bucket in the construction trailer instead of the proper 2-inch, blackened nuts.

Lawyer Efrem M. Grail, representing Dick Corp., and lawyer Robert C. Klingensmith, representing Williams company, listened to the testimony but declined comment later.

Abate said that when the giant beam fell, he was left dangling by a harness from a "manbucket" high above the construction site. Fortunately he managed to lower himself to the ground safety. Corsi was crushed by the falling beam, however,

Borkowski asked several ironworkers who worked on the convention center job if they felt "pressured" to work fast and get the project done quickly. They said there is always some sort of pressure in construction projects, but no one felt pressure to work unsafely.

Presiding at the coroner's inquest is Pittsburgh lawyer Michael George. He said his job is to review the facts and circumstances surrounding the death of Corsi and then decide the cause and manner of the death, which for now is considered an accident.

If the death were to be ruled a homicide, George said he would then have to determine "whether someone should be held responsible."

Present at yesterday's inquest were the victim's father, Paul Corsi Sr. of Aliquippa, and his sister, Christine Corsi. They said they wanted to learn more about the circumstances of Corsi Jr.'s death and to make sure that no effort was made to blame Paul Jr. for what had happened.

They briefly addressed reporters, with Corsi Sr. saying "We miss our son and wish we could bring him back."

Greg Yesko, a spokesman for the Sports & Exhibition Authority, said after the hearing that the new convention center is safe and that all the truss-caisson connections were checked after the Feb. 12 collapse and "certified" as being done properly.