{"id":128898,"date":"2026-03-04T00:14:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T00:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/128898\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T00:14:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T00:14:07","slug":"excavator-incident-halts-pennsylvania-demolition-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/128898\/","title":{"rendered":"Excavator Incident Halts Pennsylvania Demolition Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

A large excavator tumbled into an excavated pit on March 3 during demolition of a county government office building complex in Washington, Pa., southwest of Pittsburgh, but the operator appears to have been unhurt, according to published reports.<\/p>\n

Detroit-based demolition contractor Adamo Group had begun work on the project the previous day<\/a> under a $1.555-million county contract awarded last year, which includes demolition of a six-story 1970s office building and adjacent underground garage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A video taken from a nearby building posted on a local news site shows the partially obscured excavator working around the garage entrance, then adjusting its position just prior to disappearing from view. Post-incident news photos and video show the excavator lying partially on its side in the pit.<\/p>\n

A county spokesperson says the incident is under investigation, and that officials have requested a public safety incident report from Adamo, including the operator\u2019s name, employer and update on his condition. A crane will be brought to the site to remove the excavator in the coming days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Media questions about the incident were referred to Adamo, which has not responded to ENR\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

The building is being demolished to make way for a new county public complex. In a social media video<\/a> posted last week, County Commissioners Chair Nick Sherman detailed some of the existing building\u2019s structural deficiencies, including standing water, aging exterior membrane and deteriorating support beams.<\/p>\n

He added that cramped space for many county agencies \u201cwas deemed dangerous by structural engineers who came in and said the building was not structurally sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

In preparation for the demolition, the county last summer awarded a $1.44-million contract to JG Contracting Co., Carnegie, Pa., to stabilize a wall between the old office building and the historic county courthouse. Following what was set to be a 10-to 12-week demolition phase, the site was to be readied for construction to begin on the new three-story, 70,000-sq-ft public safety building. <\/p>\n

Estimated to cost up to $35 million, the new facility will contain 911 emergency dispatch facilities, a booking center and offices for the county sheriff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A large excavator tumbled into an excavated pit on March 3 during demolition of a county government office…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59969,39340,59891,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-128898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-construction-accidents","tag-excavation","tag-excavator","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}