Nobody hurt after strong winds knock down framing at construction site in Redcliff

The construction manager, Bob Aldous, said that he is happy that nobody was at the location when the framing came down.

“Another 15 minutes and then we’d have had some guys in there working underneath it. So we’re quite happy about that,” Aldous said.

“It’s set us back about four weeks. We’re just going through the insurance and everything, getting everything done. I’m just happy that no one got hurt.”

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Nobody was hurt after strong winds knocked down framing at a construction site in Redcliff on Monday. (Image Credit: Jesse Gill/CHAT News)

Aldous said they had been working on the building on Friday, and everything was fine at that point.

“We had engineers out there on Thursday or Friday looking at the project. There wasn’t an issue with it,” Aldous said.

“Then we came into work on Monday. I opened the office at seven o’clock. The building was still standing because it’s across the road, and then we got a phone call from the client about half past seven and said the building had just blown over,” he added.

“We went over there, and the trusses had gone and had pulled the wall down. It was a little bit of a shock.”

Aldous said he believes that a strong wind during the early morning hours on Monday had started to weaken the structure before it came down later in the morning.

“The client was in their office in the adjacent building, they thought they heard a truck outside hit another truck, and they looked outside thinking there was an accident, and that’s when they realized that the building had gone over,” Aldous said.

“The building was 30 feet high, and as soon as you get up to that top height, it’s like gale force winds. It’s a big difference,” he added.

“These buildings, you get them framed up, and until you get all the siding on the outside and the tin on the inside, sometimes they’re pretty vulnerable.”

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The framing that remains at a construction site in Redcliff on Monday (Image Credit: Jesse Gill/CHAT News)

Aldous also stated that everything was built correctly.

“Everything was done to building codes, all the strapping, all the bracing, everything was done correctly. It was just one of those things. It was just not a lot we could do about it,” Aldous said.

“Hopefully, we’ll have it all cleared up by the end of the week, and we’ll be back framing it by the end of this week as well.”

Aldous said that they had started site clean-up, and it is safe.

“We’ve had our engineers here. They’ve gone over the site. They’ve tried to figure out what happened,” Aldous said.

by Jesse Gill

Nobody hurt after strong winds knock down framing at construction site in Redcliff

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