Part of a sidewalk near West Jackson Boulevard and South Financial Plaza collapsed Saturday morning, with a service lift standing on top of it falling into the parking garage below. The worker standing in its elevated compartment was taken onto an ambulance, spectators said.
Before 10 a.m., a segment of pavement outside of 175 W Jackson Blvd. caved in. By about 10:15 a.m., more than a dozen officers from Chicago Police and other city agencies had arrived at the scene. The hole was cordoned off by orange barriers.
“We’re all in shock and awe right now seeing this,” said Adam Ruiz, a construction worker who was working nearby who came and looked at the damage.
He added that it looked as though water damage had deteriorated rebars beneath the sidewalk, potentially leading to its collapse.
Joel Garcia, another construction worker who was at the scene after the collapse, said based on white splatters on nearby road and sidewalk pavement, the worker on the lift may have been painting the building’s walls. Garcia said it looked like the worker was still alive when taken onto the ambulance.
Ruiz said an adjacent sidewalk segment looked thin and like it could collapse as well.
“That’s damage that should have been repaired,” he said of the crater.
A security guard for the building declined to speak about the collapse, as well as fire and city personnel at the scene.
Check back as the story was developing.
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