Work continued this morning to take down the elevator shaft. City engineer Roger Hall says crews removed several of its panels overnight to stabilize the shaft and cut its weight by 65 tons to reduce the chances of collapse.
Hall indicated the crews will remove the rest of the tower by the end of the day, but didn’t give a specific time.
ORIGINAL STORY
A portion of downtown Rapid City was blocked off and evacuated yesterday because of what was called a “structural integrity issue” with the foundation of an elevator shaft of a building under construction on the old 5th Street parking lot.
Rapid City Police Chief Don Hedrick said the city was alerted to the problem about 4:00 yesterday afternoon after the construction crew working on the shaft noticed the foundation had shifted a bit and the shaft was leaning a little to one side.
Chief Hedrick says the crew immediately began to shore up the shaft while calling police to warn of the potential of a collapse. Hedrick says the plan is apparently to dismantle the shaft, but that it’s “going to take some time.”
Buildings in the area were evacuated and fire units were on the scene to monitor the situation with the public asked to avoid the area.
The traffic restrictions were expected to continue into at least this morning, but there was no work whether the evacuations would remain in effect.