Construction work has been halted on a $1.5 billion skyscraper project over Boston's South Station amid an investigation into a steel beam that fell more than 20 stories Wednesday.
Work on South Station Tower has been shut down, the Boston Inspectional Services Department confirmed Thursday. The federal work site agency OSHA is investigating, a process that could take six months.
A representative for the construction company doing the work on the project, Suffolk, confirmed an incident at the project site and noted, that the "safety of our workers and communities is our number one priority, so we are currently investigating the cause of the incident."
In a follow-up statement, they said they agreed to shut down the project temporarily out of "an abundance of caution" and in concert with OSHA and the MBTA as the incident began. "Suffolk continues to cooperate with that investigation," the new statement noted.
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No one was hurt in the incident, which shattered a pair of windows in the tower and scattered debris on the roadway in a busy part of downtown Boston Wednesday afternoon.
But officials have said that if the beam had reached the ground, it would have hit commuters.
Mayor Michelle Wu said that part of Boston's investigation will be making sure Suffolk followed a new city ordinance that requires safety plans be submitted for every site. That requirement was put in place after a 2022 incident at a Suffolk site, a collapse that left three workers hurt.
"Have to make sure the sites are safe for workers who are building buildings and they get to go home to their families," Wu said.
The project arches over the South Station bus and train terminal, and MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng said that, while questions will need to be answered, commuters should feel safe coming and going from the station.
"We need to make sure, as they go through their investigation, what were the causes? And what can we do to ensure that doesn’t happen again? Right now that’s ongoing," he said.
