Bellevue Crane Collapse!!!!!!!!!

[MrVandelay]

Breaking News
Crane collapse - A construction crane has collapsed onto a building in downtown Bellevue on 108th Avenue NE. More details to follow.

(I thought I heard some loud crash tonight from my condo in Bellevue tower)

[InlandEmpire]

It was on NE 4th... that isn't the Bellevue Towers crane is it?? They are showing live footage on NWCN but I am drawing a blank as to what building is going up there. It does look like its next to the Galleria (possibly)

[InlandEmpire]

Crane topples, blocks major Bellevue street

08:37 PM PST on Thursday, November 16, 2006

KING5.com



KING

A construction crane collapse in downtown Bellevue Thursday evening.

BELLEVUE – A construction crane collapsed onto a building in downtown Bellevue on 108th Avenue NE near NE 4th Street on Thursday evening.

The west side of Pinnacle Bell Centre Apartments was torn away when the crane came down.

The crane also hit the ICA Center, a bank, the Civic Center, and the Melting Pot restaurant.

The restaurant was severely damaged.

It was not immediately clear if anyone was hurt in the buildings, on the street or in the crane.

The crane is blocking 108th Avenue NE.

Bellevue Police say that no one has been found to be seriously injured. The crane operator, who was inside the crane, was not seriously injured.

[WonderlandPark]

Is there a wind storm up there tonight?

[MrVandelay]

I just walked over to take a look. I think its the Tower 333 crane. It fell towards the Commons, slid down the side of that building, then crossed the street into the condos that house the "Melting Pot Restaraunt". Apparently someone said that they saw construction workers leave from the site, one left in an ambulance. No one was in the condo units that got taken out by the crane, so I was told.

Its the Tower 333 crane, it hit the building accross the street from me. Holy shit that was loud!!!! And to think, I almost moved into that building!

[MrVandelay]

Construction Crane Collapses, Possible One Dead In Bellevue
http://www.kirotv.com/news/10340653/detail.html
POSTED: 8:35 pm PST November 16, 2006
UPDATED: 9:14 pm PST November 16, 2006

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- A construction crane has collapsed in downtown Bellevue.

The crane was at 300 108th Ave NE in Bellevue. KIRO TV's Bellevue Tower Cam shows the tower fell across 108th Ave NE, hitting several buildings as it came down. Bellevue Fire tells KIRO crews on the scene that there may be one person dead.

Bellevue Fire says the crane operator was putting the crane away for the evening when it fell 210 feet below.

KIRO 7 Eyewitness News is reporting that the crane's operator was in the basket at the time of the collapse. He does not appear to be seriously injured.

KIRO also reports that the crane hit three buildings across the street. It also crashed into Wells Fargo Bank and a condominium complex.

Bellevue Fire crews are checking for damage and injuries in those buildings.

[pdxman]

Have they determined a cause yet?

One dead? What a terrible freak accident. Sitting in your living room one minute, dead from a crane through the wall the next...? Very sad.

[WolverineFan]

Sorry for the blur... I had to keep the shutter open to get this.....

[James Bond Agent 007]

Wow man this sucks!!!

[horatio_the_hermit]

Good god. This blows my mind. Bad times.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Thursday, November 16, 2006 · Last updated 9:44 p.m. PT

One killed when construction crane collapses in Bellevue

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- One person was killed when a construction crane collapsed Thursday night in downtown Bellevue.

The dead person was in an apartment building struck by the crane as it fell, Bellevue Fire Department Lt. Bruce Kroon said.

The crane's operator was also hurt but reportedly was going to be OK, police spokesman Greg Grannis said.

It wasn't immediately known whether additional people were hurt. Officers were going to door to door to check on people, but hadn't been able to get into one building because of damage, Koon said.

Firefighters used a ladder to retrieve the operator from about 20 to 30 feet above the ground, but he was able to pull himself out of the cage, Koon said. He was taken to nearby Overlake Hospital in this suburb east of Seattle.

The accident occurred just before 8 p.m. on 108th Avenue Northeast near Northeast 4th Street, a bit north of the Seastar Restaurant, and the crane was blocking 108th Avenue Northeast.

The crane was working on 333 Bellevue Tower, which is an office building that has been vacant for a few years, Koon said.

The crane operator told the fire department he was getting ready to shut down for the night, when he heard a crack and the crane went down, striking four buildings, Koon said.

The top floor of the Pinnacle Bell Centre Apartments was crushed and the building immediately next to the crane was damaged extensively, Koon said.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
That was from the P-I, this is from the Times:

Thursday, November 16, 2006 - Page updated at 10:18 PM

E-mail article Print view

Crane collapses in downtown Bellevue

By Peyton Whitely, Sara Jean Green and Mike Carter

Seattle Times staff reporters

A giant construction crane in downtown Bellevue tipped over tonight and smashed into an apartment building, killing at least one person.

The crane, which was several stories tall, toppled from a construction site about 7:45 p.m. It fell across 108th Avenue Northeast, a major downtown north-south thoroughfare, and sliced through an apartment building across the street, according to firefighters and witnesses.

At least three downtown buildings sustained severe structural damage: the Plaza 305 building, the Civica Office Commons and the Pinnacle BellCentre, a mixture of commercial stores on the ground level and luxury apartments above.

Also damaged was an adjacent restaurant, the Melting Pot.

Fire officials said they were "red tagging" the buildings, meaning they were not safe to be occupied. The crane was being left suspended over the street pending the arrival of investigators from the state Department of Labor and Industries.

The crane was located at the construction site of Tower 333, a 20-story office building under construction at the corner of Northeast Fourth Street and 108th Avenue Northeast.

The crane operator, who was not identified, was trapped in the control cab of the yellow crane nearly 30 feet off the ground. Firefighters used a ladder to reach him, and he walked from the scene, according to fire officials. Police said he "rode the crane down" nearly 200 feet.

"We're told he's going to be okay," said Bellevue police Officer Greg Grannis.

Bellevue Fire Chief Mario Trevino said the crane operator reported he was securing the crane for the night when he "heard a noise" and the crane toppled. Trevino said the accident is being blamed on "a catastrophic failure" of the craine.

One woman who witnessed the accident said it "sounded like two waves of thunder" as it came down, bouncing off adjacent structures on the way down..

Firefighters were going through the buildings one floor at a time late Thursday, looking for residents.

Officials said the person killed was living in a fourth-floor apartment in the 248-unit Pinnacle BellCentre. His identity was not immediately available.

Ryan Peach, 28, a trained emergency medical technician, was working a second job as a waiter at Melting Pot when the crane came down. He said he helped the first police officers on the scene search the apartments on the fourth floor.

Peach described a scene of terrific destruction. The ceilings had come down, along with wires and pipes, and there was nearly a foot of water on the ground from a broken water main. In one apartment, the crane had sliced through the walls and was lying across a couch.

"We were screaming in there," trying to locate survivors, Peach said. "We couldn't go in. It was just too dangerous."

The Tower 333 building is being constructed on the site on which the late developer Eugene Horbach planned to building the Bellevue Technology Tower. Horbach's plans ended when he lost the property in foreclosure 18 months before his 2004 death.

The Seattle office of Hines, an international real-estate firm, and Washington Capital Management, announced plans for Tower 333 in March. The firm said the new tower would rise 20 stories and comprise approximately 400,000 square feet.

[robbobpdx]

Originally Posted by Mr.Boisean

One dead? What a terrible freak accident. Sitting in your living room one minute, dead from a crane through the wall the next...? Very sad.

Yikes !!! very sad

[mSeattle]

Terrible.

[Seasun]

Amazing that the operator rode the crane down. From the photos I've seen this is definitely a Morrow crane (as so many are around the Seattle area). Morrow supplies lots of Liebherr tower cranes that you can learn more about at their web site below. The model 550 *might* be the model used at this site. It'll be very interesting to see how/if the long delay in construction contributed to this terrible accident. I write this because the crane base might have been set a few years ago and then only recently used. Engineering assumptions can change or be misunderstood after a few years pass.

R.I.P. to the person who died.

http://www.morrowequipment.com/PDF/L...%20HC%2020.pdf

http://www.emporis.com/en/il/im/?id=475081

[Seasun]

I don't get over to Bellevue very often - if you can help me better understand this project site:
What's the current state of construction? about how many floors above grade so far?
Who's the general contractor?

Thanks.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Originally Posted by Seasun

I don't get over to Bellevue very often - if you can help me better understand this project site:
What's the current state of construction? about how many floors above grade so far?
Who's the general contractor?

Thanks.

It's this project here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=116807

This is the project that started out as the Bellevue Tech Tower in 2001 or thereabouts but was put on hold after the dot-com bust. It's recently been resurrected as the Tower 333 project, with rumors that google was going to take a big chunk of space in it.

Don't know who the contractor is.

[SeattleHusky82]

The contractor is Lewis. Hopefully mhays can give us some more insight on what will happen now with the project.