City inspector was at construction site just before garage collapse

John Curran

Friday, Dec. 12, 2003 | 9:28 a.m.

ATLANTIC CITY -- The deadly Oct. 30 collapse of a parking garage under construction at the Tropicana Casino and Resort occurred less than an hour after a city building inspector examined the site of a concrete pour and found nothing awry, according to city records obtained under Freedom of Information laws.

Anthony Cox, 38, spent about 90 minutes inspecting the form work, the steel reinforcements in the rebar concrete and other preparations for the pour on "P-8," the eighth parking level of what was to be a 10-story parking garage.

He finished at 10 a.m., about 40 minutes before the top five stories of the building came crashing down, killing four people and injuring 20.

The city's chief construction official, Steve Frame, called Cox -- a carpenter by trade licensed by the state as an inspector for high hazard structures -- a "well-seasoned veteran" of the construction trades.

He was one of the city inspectors who conducted inspections of the building up to three times a day during its construction.

Cox found nothing amiss, according to Frame, who said the cause of the collapse may have been in another part of the building.

"That inspection passed and it was permitted for that pour to be made," Frame said Thursday.

Cox did not inspect the entire building, which had been the subject of dozens of previous city inspections throughout the building process. Two other inspections were scheduled for later that day, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., but were canceled due to the collapse, according to the one-page inspection report document.

"This project was done by the book," general contractor Keating Building Corp. said in a prepared statement released Thursday.

"Every precaution was taken and every required procedure was followed. As with any project in Atlantic City, the pouring and curing of concrete at the garage was a very closely watched process with multiple test points and checks. We continue to work with experts on site to find the true cause," the company said in a statement released by spokesman Jason Rocker.

Kate Dugan, spokeswoman for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the lead investigation agency on the accident, declined comment. She said the agency's probe was continuing and that OSHA would likely take a full six months from the date of the accident to issue a report on it.

In a wrongful death lawsuit filed Nov. 26, the widows of collapse victims James P. Bigelow and Michael M. Wittland blamed the casino, Keating and concrete subcontractor Fabi Construction Inc. for the accident.

According to the widows' lawyer, Robert J. Mongeluzzi, the concrete-pouring forms used to build the garage were prematurely removed from the structure and the walls and floors on the upper levels weren't properly connected.

"Of all the experts who are investigating it, nobody knows the cause yet," according to Frame.

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