A construction worker fell down a ventilation shaft on Jan. 23 while working on the Obama Presidential Center, built by joint venture contractor Lakeside Alliance, in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.
The Chicago Fire Department responded around 1:05 p.m. to the scene on 60th Stony Island Street and Avenue where the worker, who has not been identified, was found in the basement of the museum building under construction.
“He was inside the duct,” the fire department said. spokesman Larry Langford. “We cut it and took it out.”
The worker had fallen from the sixth floor.
“He fell into a vent that’s tilted back and forth, so it wasn’t a straight fall,” Langford said.
A statement from the Lakeside Alliance said the worker was installing insulation inside the ventilation shaft and after the accident was “conscious, alert and transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center for assessment and care”. The Obama Center is being built next to the University of Chicago campus; the medical center is nearby.
Lakeside Alliance is a joint venture of construction companies Brown & Momen, Power & Sons Construction, Safeway Construction and UJAMAA Construction, who are joining with Turner Construction to build the Obama Center. The center’s campus will span 19 acres, including a museum, an auditorium, a branch of the Chicago Public Library, an athletic facility, and a fruit and vegetable garden.
