Portions of Grant Street and Forbes Avenue, Downtown, will remain closed at least until noon Tuesday after a chunk of granite broke loose and fell from the historic Frick Building, Pittsburgh city officials said Monday.
Much of the stone — estimated at 9 cubic feet — landed in a crosswalk at Grant and Forbes after tumbling some 250 feet from the building’s cornice, probably sometime late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. A passer-by called in the debris shortly before 3 a.m Sunday; no injuries were reported.
City officials estimated the weight of the stone chunk to be around 1,440 pounds. They closed sidewalks and traffic lanes near the building before Monday morning’s rush hour, with Grant blocked from Fifth to Fourth avenues as a safety precaution.
“We are fortunate it is summer. There are people on vacation,” said Wendell Hissrich, the city public safety director.
He said road and sidewalk closures near the building — including the stretch of Forbes Avenue from Ross Street to Cherry Way — will be in effect at least until a reassessment of conditions around midday Tuesday. Workers were continuing to examine the structure at 437 Grant St. The granite fell from its southwest corner.
“It’s a potentially dangerous situation. That’s why we’re taking the precautions,” Mr. Hissrich said, urging pedestrians to respect perimeters marked with yellow tape. He said motorists who leave their cars in nearby areas marked with “No Parking” signs will risk being towed.
Commuters should plan their trips and consider alternate routes, said Guy Costa, the city chief operations officer. Mayor Bill Peduto’s office said Grant Street between Fifth and Fourth will stay closed until repairs are complete.
Also Monday, city officials were reassessing traffic patterns Downtown to try to ease congestion for the afternoon and morning rush hours, Mr. Hissrich said. He said commuters will probably see more police in the area, acknowledging the city’s traffic plan for Monday morning “obviously wasn’t enough” as drivers reported lengthy delays and backups.
As for the Frick Building, it had no active code violations on its exterior — and none that would have contributed to the incident, said Maura Kennedy, the city director for permits, licenses and inspections.
She said the city will require the building owner, New Jersey-based Rugby Realty, to make repairs and produce an engineer’s report assessing the problem. Water infiltration probably led to the granite breakage, Ms. Kennedy said. She said any code-related fines — if any were to materialize — would be left to a judge to decide.
An engineer at the property, which remained open Monday, was looking behind the structure’s facade to explore precisely what happened, Ms. Kennedy said. Workers also are checking other parts of the cornice to see if they are structurally sound, the mayor’s office said.
“Ownership may be forced to build a 21-story scaffold at the corner of Grant Street and Forbes Avenue to protect pedestrians and allow for repairs,” Mr. Peduto’s office said in a statement.
Rugby Realty has hired O’Hara-based Graciano Corp., which brought in a structural engineer from Washington, D.C., said Larry Walsh, Rugby’s chief operating officer in the Pittsburgh area. He said the structural engineer has begun a full investigation of the failed area, along with the entire cornice.
“They are going to produce a report that will detail what caused [the problem], what needs to be done to stabilize it and what needs to be done to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Mr. Walsh said.
He said the report may not be complete until Tuesday afternoon. Mr. Peduto’s office said the company “may be forced to build a 21-story scaffold at the corner of Grant Street and Forbes Avenue to protect pedestrians and allow for repairs.”
Named after Pittsburgh industrialist Henry Clay Frick, who commissioned the landmark, the roughly 20-story building saw its first tenants in March 1902.
Pieces of the fallen stone from the Frick Building were visible Monday morning on Grant Street. (Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette)
First Published: July 31, 2017, 1:05 p.m.
Updated: July 31, 2017, 4:58 p.m.
