On September 20, 2019, construction workers cleaned up collapsed scaffolding in the 300 block of East Martin Street in San Antonio. The strong winds brought by the storm caused the scaffolding to fall from the side of the AT&T building and land on the property of the Anglican Church of St. Mark.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s reference to United Restoration and Preservation Inc. in the 2019 East Martin Street scaffolding collapse, instead of Big City Access Inc. St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. A contractor stated that OSHA cited Big City Access.
In a storm in 2019, about 230 feet of scaffolding collapsed from a nearby building to the downtown campus of the San Marco Anglican Church. The storm brought wind speeds of 60 miles per hour.
Piles of heavy metal scaffolding pierced the roofs of parish buildings in several places. The steel also damaged the coolers of the church's heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system, causing floodwater to pour down from the four floors of the building. Offices, classrooms, rehearsal rooms and meeting places were all destroyed. The brickwork was also damaged.
The church stated that it suffered a total of approximately $14.5 million in losses.
It now wants those who it believes are responsible for paying.
On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio Church damaged by scaffolding accident is undergoing repairs
On Friday, scaffolding encircled part of the diocese of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. It is not immediately possible to determine whether the scaffolding was intended to repair the damage caused by the collapse of the scaffolding of nearby buildings in 2019.
On September 20, 2019, construction workers cleaned up collapsed scaffolding in the 300 block of East Martin Street in San Antonio. The strong winds brought by the storm caused the scaffolding to fall from the side of the AT&T building and land on the property of the Anglican Church of St. Mark.
After the collapse on September 19, 2019, broken scaffolding scattered on the roof and collapsed on the property of the Anglican Church of St. Mark.
On September 20, 2019, construction workers cleaned up collapsed scaffolding in the 300 block of East Martin Street in San Antonio. The strong winds brought by the storm caused the scaffolding to fall from the side of the AT&T building and land on the property of the Anglican Church of St. Mark.
On Saturday, September 21, 2019, workers removed the scaffolding from the parish building next to St. Mark's Anglican Church in the 300th block of East Martin Street. The scaffolding collapsed from a nearby building in the storm.
On Saturday, September 21, 2019, workers removed the scaffolding from the parish building next to St. Mark's Anglican Church in the 300th block of East Martin Street. The scaffolding collapsed from a nearby building in the storm.
On September 21, 2019, workers used cranes to remove collapsed scaffolding from the parish building next to St. Mark's Bishop's Church in the 300th block of East Martin Street. The scaffolding fell from a nearby building in the storm.
On September 21, 2019, workers removed the scaffolding from the parish building next to St. Mark's Anglican Church in the 300 block of East Martin Street. The scaffolding fell from a nearby building in the storm.
On September 21, 2019, workers removed the scaffolding from the parish building next to St. Mark's Anglican Church in the 300 block of East Martin Street. The scaffolding fell from a nearby building in the storm.
On September 22, 2019, some scaffolding remained on the roof of the diocese of St. Mark’s Anglican Church. A few days later, a storm overturned the scaffolding of a nearby building.
This week St. Mark's sued two subcontractors who were employed in work related to the restoration of the exterior wall of the 14-story AT&T office building across East Martin Street, where the scaffolding collapsed.
The lawsuit mentions that United Restoration and Preservation Inc., headquartered in Georgia, was hired to perform exterior decoration. Gulf Coast Access Inc., formerly Big City Access Inc., allegedly built scaffolding by United Restoration.
On Friday, representatives of the two companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Big City Access was acquired by BrandSafway of Georgia in December.
St. Mark's stated that the scaffold collapsed during a large gust of wind around 9:30 pm on September 19, 2019. But it added that the weather conditions "are not severe enough to cause accidents where the scaffolding has no potential defects."
The church stated that its $14.5 million loss was "completely due to the negligence and carelessness of United Restoration and Big City Access."
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration earlier began investigating how the scaffold fell from the side of the AT&T building.
OSHA's website shows that the federal agency reached an "informal settlement" with United Restoration for $12,145 in January 2020. The company was charged with a serious “initial violation”.
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OSHA found that United Restoration allegedly violated federal law because it did not have "qualified personnel qualified to install, move, remove, or modify scaffolding."
The quotation added that during the restoration activities, “the connection device of the scaffolding wall was changed”, “making employees face the risk of falling”.
The lawsuit did not mention whether the church’s insurance covered any losses.
In October, Express-News reported that the repair and renovation of the church is expected to take more than a year and cost more than 7 million U.S. dollars. Pastor Beth Knowlton, the principal of the church, said at the time that it had good insurance and did not need to raise funds to pay for it.
Knowlton attended a meeting on Friday and was unable to comment. A lawyer for the church did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Friday, scaffolding covered part of the parish. It is uncertain whether it was erected as part of maintenance work.
The San Marco Basilica was completed in 1875 and remained largely unscathed in the events of 2019. The church was built in 1858.
Patrick Danner is a business reporter for the San Antonio Express News.