A skilled labor shortage in Alberta is causing headaches for construction projects and jeopardizing the province’s ability to keep up with a growing population.
In early June, Calgary suffered a catastrophic break in one of its water mains, causing city officials to declare a local emergency and ask households to reduce water use by 25%. The broken pipe paralyzed the city for weeks as crews worked around the clock to complete repairs before millions of visitors descended on the city for the Calgary Stampede.
The source of the break was an ancient pipe, the sort of aging infrastructure problem that many experts warn will plague Alberta in the next few decades, especially coupled with a shortage of skilled tradespeople needed to repair it.
Alberta’s population is rapidly growing—the province added 200,000 new citizens last year alone—and with this growth comes the need to build new homes, repair roads, and upgrade critical infrastructure. Unfortunately, like the rest of Canada, Alberta is experiencing a shortage of skilled trades.
Buildforce Canada says part of the issue is the number of retiring tradespeople Alberta will need to replace. An estimated 42,500 workers (23% of the workforce) are expected to retire by 2033.
To combat this problem, the Government of Alberta has increased funding for post-secondary apprenticeship programs. Higher enrolment rates seem to indicate
the strategy has been successful, but it will take years for graduates to gain the skills and experience needed to match those hanging up their hard hats.
To fill the gap, which is estimated to reach 22,000 jobs by 2033, Alberta has also launched an initiative designed to entice tradespeople from Ontario, Quebec, and BC. The Alberta is Calling campaign promises a $5000 tax-free “moving bonus” to anyone who moves to Alberta and stays for a year while working in any of 55 included skilled trades.
In the meantime, business owners compete with large-scale industrial projects to hire the skilled tradespeople they need to get the job done.
Kevin O’Shea, president of Shamrock Electric Co., Inc., has one vital message to construction workers who are struggling with their mental health: call him.
It’s a message he shares as much as possible given the growing number of suicides among workers in the industry.
“I’m not a professional. I’m just some guy that would rather hear you tell me your story than hear your friend tell me your eulogy,” O’shea told FOX Business.
While he isn’t a professional in the medical sense, O’Shea has been in the industry for nearly five decades, and has come face to face with colleagues and employees who have considered suicide. O’Shea isn’t a stranger to mental health issues either, admitting that he has found ways to deal with his tremors, ADHD and depression.
According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the construction industry has one of the highest suicide rates compared to other industries. About 56 out of 100,000 men in construction die by suicide, according to data published in 2021.
In 2016, the suicide rate for men in construction and extraction occupations was over 49 per 100,000, which was almost twice the total suicide rate for civilian working men between 16 and 64 years old in 32 states and five times greater than the rate for all fatal work-related injuries in the industry.
Kevin O’Shea, president of Shamrock Electric Co., Inc. (Kevin O’Shea)
When O’Shea found how bad the statistics were, he started doing everything in his power to raise awareness about this issue.
“We have to be our brothers and sisters, keepers, that we have to watch out for each other. We have to make sure that if somebody is hurting, we recognize the signs and we help that person,” he said, adding that “if we can save one person. That’s a step in the right direction.”
In 2019, he received an unexpected call while celebrating his 30th wedding anniversary in Paris. His office manager contacted him to relay that one of his employees had informed the foreman that he may not be able to work the next day.
“Instead of the foreman saying, ‘okay, call me, let me know one way or the other,’ the foreman said, ‘what do you mean by that?’,” O’Shea recalled.
Construction workers help build a mixed-use apartment complex which will hold over 700 units of apartment housing and 95,000 square feet of commercial space on January 25, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images / Getty Images)
The worker revealed that his girlfriend left him with their baby, his brother had recently died by suicide and his other brother was battling cancer. O’Shea said the worker expressed uncertainty about whether he could “go on.”
O’Shea saw that same worker at a safety meeting two years after getting him the help he needed.
“That apprentice came up to me and said, ‘Kevin, I can’t thank you enough for you and the company standing behind me in my darkest hours.’ And to me, that is what getting the message out is all about,” O’Shea said.
O’Shea frequently tells people in the industry that there is “an 800 pound gorilla in our industry called stigma. And the stigma is that you can’t talk about your feelings.”
He’s fighting to change this, and he’s not alone.
Construction workers build a single-family home in Westhampton Beach, New York, US, on Wednesday, May 22, 2024. (Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Greg Sizemore, Associated Builders and Contractors vice president of health, safety, environment and workforce development, has also heard far too many about workers who have been struggling since he started in the industry about 50 years ago. Like O’Shea, he told FOX Business the rate of suicides in the industry is “alarming.”
On top of the struggles they may be dealing with in their personal life, Sizemore told FOX Business that these workers are also contending with the immense pressures on the job site.
Not only is the industry “inherently dangerous”, but every job is driven by cost and schedule, Sizemore said. This means professionals that are actually installing the work face “a tremendous amount of pressure because the end date never changes,” he said. Today, workers might also be working 10 to 12 hours per day about six to seven days a week to meet the demand needed to get the work done on time.
Construction workers work on a construction site on Lennox Avenue on July 22, 2022 in the Flatbush neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough in New York City. ((Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) / Getty Images)
“We need to educate our workforce more directly on the signs and symptoms that they need to look out for when their peers or an employee that works for them may be under distress,” Sizemore said. “When we raise our awareness…this becomes an issue that we can actually be proactive about rather than reactive.”
If you or you know someone who needs help:
Kevin O’Shea’s email: Kevin@shamrockelectric.com.
He also directed people to call or text 988, which is the suicide and crisis lifeline.
Counselors with the 988 Lifeline network are trained to provide free and confidential emotional support and crisis counseling to people who are in a suicidal crisis or emotional distress.
These services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, across the United States.
They can also get resources from the Construction Industry Alliance for Suicide Prevention (CIASP) by going to www.preventconstructionsuicide.com.
The alliance raises awareness about suicide prevention and provides resources and tools to create a zero suicide industry by uniting and supporting the construction community, according to its website.
This post was originally written by Daniella Genovese for FOXBusiness.
In a swath of Arizona desert that will soon be home to a multi-billion dollar semiconductor plant, Justin Azbill stood before thousands of construction workers and told the story of the day he almost took his life.
Pressure had been building on Azbill for months in his job as safety director for a large Boston construction firm during the height of the pandemic. Sleep deprived and overwhelmed, Azbill said he made the decision one morning to take his own life and packed a lethal means to do so in his lunch sack.
But as he was preparing to leave for work that morning, his daughter intervened — she asked him to stay home with her that day. He did and the day provided a moment of clarity for Azbill who then sought out help from a friend.
Azbill, who got his start in construction as an ironworker, has been traveling to construction sites across the country sharing his story as he and others in the industry race to address what they say is an epidemic of suicide among their colleagues — many of whom are under increasing strain amid a nationwide construction boom and a shortage of workers.
“In the construction industry, we’ve generationally been taught that if you talk to someone about a weakness or you’re struggling then you’re weak and you won’t get hired,” said Azbill. “One of the reasons I talk about it so freely is so people know that it’s normal and it’s okay.”
Justin Azbill tells the story of the day he almost took his life. (Courtesy Justin Azbill)
The construction industry has one of the highest suicide rates among professions — with the rate among male construction workers 75% higher than men in the general population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An estimated 6,000 construction workers died as a result of suicide in 2022, an increase from 2021, according to the most recent data available. That compares to around 1,000 who died from a construction work-related injury.
“When you’re more likely to be killed by your own hands than to get killed in a jobsite accident, that’s a crisis in our industry,” said Brian Turmail, vice president of public affairs and workforce for the Associated General Contractors of America. “We know pretty much what needs to happen to protect people physically. We’re figuring out how to protect people mentally.”
While construction wages are up and jobs are plentiful, those in the industry fear that the pressures on their workers’ mental health are only getting worse. A recent surge in construction projects, spurred by billions of federal dollars for infrastructure, clean energy and semiconductor projects have put increasing strain on an already stretched workforce. As a result, workers are putting in more than 10-hour days in harsh weather conditions, facing high-pressure deadlines and having to spend months away from home living in hotels, temporary workforce housing or their vehicles. There is also the risk of workplace injuries and a higher rate of opioid misuse along with the general financial instability of hourly work.
“There’s a lot that goes into how stressful it is, not just physically, but mentally and psychologically,” said Josh Vitale, a superintendent for Hoffman Construction, the general contractor overseeing the Intel Arizona project where Azbill recently spoke. “There’s a huge human toll. There’s no free lunch, if we want this stuff, and I think progress is fantastic, but we have to realize that we are legitimately wringing the life out of people.”
One of the biggest building booms is being driven by the semiconductor industry. Companies are planning to spend $450 billion on 80 new semiconductor manufacturing projects in 25 states as part of a nationwide push led by the Biden administration to increase U.S. manufacturing of high-tech chips that go into everything from cars to military equipment, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.
In Arizona, workers building the $20 billion Intel facility typically work two 60-hour weeks followed by a 50-hour week for months at a time in the hot Arizona weather with no paid vacation time, said Vitale. Because of a shortage of local workers, many are coming in from out of state, leaving behind friends and family and living for months or years in hotels or temporary housing.
For Azbill, a number of factors came together in a matter of months that pushed him to a place where he was close to ending his own life.
Azbill had spent decades working his way up the ranks of the construction industry, and when the pandemic hit, he was thrust into the role of Covid czar, working in an emotionally challenging and negative environment as his company tried to navigate the pandemic on their worksites, he said.
“I was working 19-hour days, and then I couldn’t sleep at night. Try that for six months and see where someone would be,” he said. “You start seeing everything negatively, there is this darkness. I was crying myself to sleep.”
At home, his relationship with his wife and daughter was fraying because for months he had barely been around, but he worried that if he cut back his hours at work he would let his family down financially, he said.
“At the time, I didn’t think that my wife or my daughter really cared for me because for six months I was angry all the time, they were cautious being around me, they didn’t want to cause more problems for me,” Azbill said.
After about six months, Azbill said he hit a breaking point. There was a Covid outbreak on a job site after some workers weren’t following safety protocols. The incident angered him in a way he’d never experienced. He said he blacked out and started having thoughts of suicide. He knew something was wrong so he went home to try to get some sleep.
He woke up at 2:30 a.m. the next morning and decided he was going to take his own life. He wrote three good-bye letters: one to his mother, one to his wife and one to his daughter.
“Before I left, I said ‘goodbye. I’m going to work, I love you guys,’” he said.
Then, his eight-year-old daughter, who was doing remote school, came running out of her room.
“She says ‘papa papa,’ and anytime she calls me papa she steals my heart. It’s also her way of saying she loves me,” Azbill said. “I think she knew I was struggling bad, and I was her best friend. She said ‘papa I love you, spend time with me, I don’t like my teacher and I don’t like school, can you spend time with me today?’ And so I did.”
Azbill stayed home from work that day and watched his daughter.
In the afternoon, he got on a weekly Zoom call with dozens of other safety professionals in the industry. Near the end of the call, one of the participants began crying, talking about losing one of his best friends to Covid and shared how he was struggling with the loss.
“I call that my clarity moment, it completely changed my mindset,” he said. “I realized, I can’t do that. I’m not going to do what I was thinking.”
After the Zoom meeting, Azbill called a friend and shared that he was struggling. His friend told him how important he was to those in his life and that people are grateful for all he does. That phone call, he said, helped save his life.
At the Intel project, the site’s general contractor, Hoffman Construction, has tried to tackle the risk of suicide in a number of ways across its worksites after the company lost two of its supervisors over the past several years to suicide, said Vitale. Intel doesn’t employ any of the construction workers on the site or have direct involvement in the construction process.
The company has created community center-style spaces on its worksites where workers can have some personal space, attend a substance misuse meeting or talk with a peer who can help connect them to mental health resources. It also started including discussions about mental health in its regular staff meetings.
“It would be rare to find someone in the industry who hasn’t known a person that has taken their life within the last year or two,” said Vitale. “As an industry, we just keep putting more and more pressure on the worker to outperform what they’ve done before, and at some point it’s just untenable.”
Vitale has gotten involved in a number of efforts to reduce suicides in the industry after he struggled with his own mental health crisis after the loss of his baby, he said. Several times a week, he said he is involved in a suicide interventions at the Arizona job site and has counseled dozens of colleagues thinking about hurting themselves, like a young carpenter he’s been talking to recently who is struggling with the loss of his mother and grandmother.
But even with those efforts, the worksite hasn’t been immune from loss — an employee for one of the project’s contractors recently died by suicide at home over the weekend.
Alarm bells about the high rate of suicide started going off in the construction industry in 2016 when a CDC report showed construction workers had one of the highest rates of suicide by profession, leading various industry groups to start looking for solutions. For every 100,000 male construction workers, 56 died of suicide in 2022, according to CDC data. That compared to 32 suicide deaths per 100,000 men in the general population. Males have a significantly greater rate of suicide than females.
A key focus for the industry has been trying to tackle the taboo nature of talking about mental health and seeking treatment. Industry organizations have been using everything from PSA-style videos and worksite talks to stickers, poker chips and magnets plastered around job sites informing workers of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Groups have also been creating resources like worksite talks and suicide prevention training courses to help guide employers in how to talk about mental health with their employees.
Construction firm Bechtel said earlier this year that it would spent $7 million toward an effort with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to reach 500,000 construction workers with industry-specific mental health programs.
Shannon Niles, safety director for construction firm Paric Corp., said he experienced the mental toll the job can take first-hand after witnessing a coworker die on a job site when a trench collapsed on him. Niles tried to dig the man out, but was unable to save him. He said he bottled up the trauma of the incident, becoming more angry, withdrawn and drinking heavily until his family intervened and urged him to get help.
But Niles said there is an industry culture that discourages many from asking for help and a fear that showing any perceived weakness could jeopardize their job prospects.
“Construction workers think they’re so big and bad, that they don’t ever need any help. But we’ve got to realize we’re all human beings, and we all need help at some point,” Niles said.
Giving added urgency to the issue is an industry-wide shortage of workers. At the start of 2024, the construction industry needed an additional 500,000 workers on top of the normal pace of hiring to meet the expected demand, according to the Associated Builders and Contractors.
“You spend a couple hundred thousand dollars to train a superintendent for 20 years, and you’re going to throw them out the door now because they have a mental health problem or substance abuse?” said Mike Pugh, who oversees safety for DPR Construction. “They’re finding financially it’s not viable, it doesn’t pay any more to ignore and separate these issues because we don’t have anybody to replace them because there’s a worker shortage.”
It’s a stark change from when Pugh was facing his own mental health struggles more than two decades ago. Pugh said he began a downward spiral with drug and alcohol addiction following several traumatic deaths in his family. At the time he was working in a high-level position for an HVCA company that worked on large-scale commercial construction projects.
“My bosses are watching me circle the drain and nobody’s really saying anything,” Pugh said. “As men, we’re taught to take care of your stuff, take care of your family. When you’re unable to do that you feel even more shame and guilt and it just all piles on until I just kind of snapped and couldn’t do it anymore.”
Ultimately, it was his brother who urged him to get help and he has been in recovery for 25 years. Like Azbill, he now travels the country talking at worksites about the need for a culture change in the industry.
He thinks the message is starting to get through. Recently, he was at a job site in California where he had spoken about a year ago. While talking with the site’s safety manager, a laborer approached him and pulled him aside so no one would see them talking.
“He tells me ‘Sir, after your talk last year, I went home and told my wife for the first time about my drinking, and I’ve been sober for five months,’” Pugh said. “We both started crying and hugging.”
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.
A construction labor shortage in British Columbia is increasing workers’ wages, but it may also slow contractors’ ability to start new projects. Regardless, the province’s construction sector is still robust, as it has been for several years, according to the BC Construction Association (BCCA).
Activity is high but slower
The Spring 2024 BCCA Construction Industry Stat Pack and BCCA’s annual BC Construction Industry Survey Report (published in April) say demand for construction projects is still high in British Columbia, with $160 billion in major projects underway. That’s a hike of $3 billion in work over the past six months and a 39% increase in activity over the past five years.
Still, it’s a lower level of activity than a year ago. In the Spring of 2023, B.C. had $221 billion in proposed construction projects—a 30% decrease from the $160 billion in current construction activity.
The shortage of skilled construction workers may be partly responsible for that gap, but other factors, including late payments for contractors and even delayed return of project liens, also seem to be squeezing growth.
Wages up and increasing
Wages are increasing for B.C. construction workers due to a labor shortage, but not as much as they should be, given mandated minimum wage pay rates. Construction wages continue to trend up as they have for years and may continue in that direction for a while.
About three-quarters (77%) of employers reported increasing wages in the past year. This ongoing trend has been a boon for workers, with the average annual wage in the province’s construction sector jumping 21% over the past five years to $74,853. Even so, the average entry-level wage for construction workers is still only $22.11/hour. However, the average wage of tradespeople with a decade or more of experience is $42.71/hour, according to the survey.
While that wage might seem rosy to some in various parts of the continental U.S. and Canada, it’s not a great wage, especially in B.C. The province’s minimum wage, while seemingly high compared to minimum wages in many U.S. states, is currently $17.40 per hour. That means the physically demanding and often emotionally straining work of construction is being remunerated at just 25% above B.C.’s minimum wage.
Even so, it’s a movement in the right direction for workers struggling to stay afloat due to low wages.
In recent years, Canada has been instituting increases in its minimum wage. So, it’s possible that increases in starting hourly rates for construction workers are moving up in relation to wages generally—i.e., wages are adjusting to a new low threshold mandated by law and might continue to adjust as the construction labor market tightens due to increasing wages and competition for workers in other sectors.
According to some sources, some construction workers in the U.S. make as little as $24,000 annually.
Prompt payment laws needed
While more than nine of ten B.C. construction employers are small businesses with less than 20 employees, industry players are messing with their money and likely impeding growth in construction.
Most contractors surveyed reported being paid late for completed work, and three-quarters said they hadn’t gotten their 10% lien holdbacks promptly. Disturbingly, 62% of contractors reported not being paid on at least one occasion for work completed in the past year.
These payment problems are resulting in contract disputes. Overall, more than a third of construction companies—17% of small, 36% of medium-sized, and 42% of large companies—said they’d been in a contract dispute in the past year.
B.C.’s small and medium-sized construction companies are worried about permitting and inspection timelines and the lack of prompt payment legislation.
The provincial government continues to fail to deliver on prompt payment legislation, BCCA said in a press release. “As BC’s contractors wait months for payment, they experience significant financial risk and take on the increased cost of debt, which can put them in danger of bankruptcy. They are put in the position of “financing” construction projects, including the housing BC desperately needs.”
“We have asked the Eby government time and time again to respect the hard-working people and small business owners of BC’s construction industry by ending payment uncertainty through Prompt Payment Legislation,” states Chris Atchison, BCCA President.
The construction industry still projects a deficit of 6,600 skilled workers by 2033, but that shortage has improved over the past five years. A decade ago, a projected shortfall of 26,100 workers was estimated for 2023.
Despite 9% growth in the number of B.C. construction companies in the past five years (28,014), the number of tradespeople in the industry has dropped by 7% (167,300). The average company size shrunk by 15% over the previous five years to an average of 5.97 skilled trade workers, the BCCA report states.
WASHINGTON, DC — The construction industry added 27,000 jobs on net in June, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of data released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. On a year-over-year basis, industry employment has increased by 235,000 jobs, an increase of 2.9%.
Nonresidential construction employment increased by 21,200 positions on net, with growth in all three subcategories. Nonresidential specialty trade contractors added the most jobs for the month, (+9,200 jobs), followed by heavy and civil engineering (+6,300 jobs) and nonresidential building (+5,700 jobs).
The construction unemployment rate decreased to 3.3% in June. Unemployment across all industries rose from 4.0 in May to 4.1% last month.
“Despite indications that the broader economy is slowing, the construction industry continued to add jobs at a rapid pace in June,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “Contractors added another 27,000 jobs for the month, with hiring concentrated in the nonresidential segment. Nonresidential construction employment has expanded 3.8% over the past year, a rate of growth over twice as fast as that of the broader economy. With backlog still at healthy levels, according to ABC’s Construction Backlog Indicator, hiring should continue in the coming months.
“Of course, the Industry would have added jobs at an even faster pace if not for ongoing labor shortages,” said Basu. “The construction unemployment rate fell to 3.3% in June, the second-lowest level ever recorded. This is in stark contrast to the nationwide unemployment rate which, while still low by historical standards, rose to the highest level since November 2021.”
For more information on the Construction Backlog indicator, the Construction Confidence Index, and employment, visit abc.org/economics.
Allowing hazardous construction site conditions ruined a young union operating engineer’s hip, damaging his livelihood, and cost those he sued $919,000 for injuries.
The settlement, won in early June by Chicago injury law firm GWC, resulted from a lawsuit led by GWC partner Michael D. Fisher and attorney Autumn K. Leslie. It includes a complete waiver of the worker’s compensation lien, which totaled $189,000.
Poor site conditions injured worker
The successful lawsuit resulted from a November 2019 accident where a 27-year-old union operating engineer working on a site in Willow Springs, Illinois, was hurt when he tripped and fell while stepping over a silt fence in muddy conditions. The lawsuit was filed against a large pipeline operator, charging that it didn’t identify and rectify hazardous conditions and activities on the worksite.
The suit was also filed against the project’s general contractor for failing to provide safe access around the job site without requiring workers to step over the silt fence, which caused the plaintiff to fall.
Companies deny blame for serious injury
The plaintiff in the lawsuit suffered a torn labrum in his left hip and aggravated the underlying impingement in his left hip. The injury required surgery, putting the plaintiff out of work for almost a year.
Both defendants claimed they acted reasonably in identifying and addressing hazards. They also claimed the plaintiff’s injuries were his fault for choosing to step over the silt fence.
“While the defendants conceded nothing, we were able to show, one witness at a time, how their failures directly caused our client’s fall,” GWC partner Michael D. Fisher said.
A pattern of neglect established
The lawsuit demonstrated that the defendants didn’t do enough to identify and address the hazardous conditions on the job site and were responsible for the fall that seriously injured the plaintiff.
Various workers made daily efforts to stabilize muddy ground on the job site before the plaintiff’s fall, but this didn’t fix the problem.
“Defendants testified that there were alternative routes available; however, when workers who were at the job site on a daily basis testified that there were no alternative routes for the work our client was doing without stepping over that slit fence, it became clear that this incident was inevitable and defendants were going to need to pay,” attorney Autumn Leslie said.
Pittsburgh city officials have stopped work on the 900,000 SF UPMC Presbyterian Hospital Tower in a matter related to the city and the Pittsburgh Regional Building Trades Council and work permits for the project. The billion-dollar project involves building a 17-story inpatient tower. Ground was broken for the tower two years ago.
City orders work stoppage
On June 20, Pittsburgh’s Department of Permits, Licenses, and Inspections issued a stop work order on the building, leaving 120 workers temporarily out of work.
One council official said the Pittsburgh Regional Building Trades Council has no involvement in the matter apart from advocating for the union workers on this job who are out of work due to an error from the contractor, the city, or both.
“My problem is I have over a hundred union workers sitting at home today,” said Pittsburgh Regional Building Trades Council business manager Greg Bernard, a trained ironworker. “I need to get them back to work as soon as possible. That’s our issue with it.”
Required permits not yet approved
According to Maria Montano, the city’s communications director, UPMC didn’t have the required permits for the project and was ordered to obtain them before work could resume. The large nonprofit failed to get the necessary permits for the building’s electrical, mechanical, and fire suppression work, which has been under construction for over a year.
“These permits were applied for six months ago but not approved by the city yet,” Bernard said.
City officials are taking the matter seriously and halting project work. It’s currently unclear who is at fault, but work should not have progressed without the required permits.
“It is our job in city government to ensure the safety of workers and citizens,” Montaño said to CBS Pittsburgh. “UPMC did not have the required permits for the work it was doing, and when that was discovered, our inspector issued a stop order.” UPMC told CBS Pittsburgh the matter should be resolved quickly. It’s unclear how soon that will happen.
The families of one ironworker killed and another injured at the University of Chicago Hospital construction site are suing Turner Construction Company and Adjustable Forms Inc. for negligence.
The first lawsuit was filed on behalf of Jeffrey A. Spyrka, an ironworker who fell over 100 feet when a scaffold at the University of Chicago Hospital’s new cancer center project failed in high winds. A second lawsuit, filed for the family of David O’Donnell, a technical engineer who suffered fatal injuries in the fall, was also filed in mid-June.
Partners of the Chicago-based law firm GWC Injury Lawyers, Louis C. Cairo, Louis Anthony Cairo, and Michael D. Fisher represent both lawsuits. They seek redress for the workers’ deaths and/or injuries. The Spyrka lawsuit names Turner Construction Company, alleging that the GC failed to take appropriate safety measures to ensure the scaffold system that surrounded all sides of the core of a new building was safely and properly erected.
The Spyrka lawsuit alleges that Turner caused scaffold work to continue at great heights on the building’s exterior when high winds were known to be occurring. The suit says these dangerous conditions were ignored, risking the safety of the men working on the scaffolding.
The Spyrka lawsuit also names Adjustable Forms, Inc. as a second defendant. The company built a concrete form pouring system with a trailing scaffold set up 20 feet below the form pouring section but improperly built the scaffold system.
The suit alleges that the scaffold was so shoddily built that the corners could separate and move under any condition, especially the pressure of high winds. According to the lawsuit, an Adjustable Forms representative assured workers that the scaffold system raised to the 9th floor was safe to work on despite weather conditions.
David O’Donnell was the last worker to reach the scaffold, stepping onto it and briefly talking with Spyrka and another Ironworker near the southwest corner of the scaffold. Soon after, a gust of wind separated the southwest corner of the scaffold, causing the southerly scaffold section to swing violently away from the wall. Spyrka and O’Donnell were tossed over eight stories to the ground.
Spyrka, 36, and his wife, Ashley, have been married for eight years. They have three children under six years old. He has extensive experience as a Local 1 Ironworker and has an impeccable safety record.
“The fact that Jeff survived this fall is nothing short of a miracle and a testament to the fine medical doctors who are treating him 24 hours a day in ICU at the same hospital where this horrific work accident occurred,” stated a press release from the law firm. “Nonetheless, he has suffered life-altering, catastrophic injuries as a result of this fall.”
“The Spyrka family is thankful that those efforts have saved Jeff’s life, although they mourn the loss of David O’Donnell, who was a friend, a building trades brother, and an amazing young man,” GWC said. “For years, David worked side by side with countless Ironworkers doing the layout work for their trade work. His passing is mourned by the members of both those in the Technical Engineers division of his Local 130 union, as well as the many Ironworkers in IW’s Local 1.”
Jeffrey Spyrka, pictured with his family, survived a fall from scaffolding on June 6 while working on a construction site at the University of Chicago Hospital.
O’Donnell, 27, is survived by his parents, David and Christine O’Donnell, and his brothers, Brendan (32), Kevin (26), and Patrick (20). O’Donnell was trained as a technical engineer in the Apprentice Training Program with Local 130 and has since worked for his father’s company.
David O’Donnell, 27, died after being thrown from scaffolding more than eight stories to the ground.
“He has been groomed by his boss/father/dear friend, Dave Sr, to ultimately take over the company business. Dreams and aspirations have been shattered in the O’Donnell family as a result of this incident,” the GCW Law firm press release said.
Turner Construction did not answer requests for comments on this story. Lombard, IL.-based Adjustable Concrete did issue a statement. “We are aware of the recent filings and continue to be deeply saddened to learn of this accident. We offer our sincerest condolences to the loved ones of those affected. Safety is integral to what we do, and Adjustable Concrete is partnering with Turner Construction to support a full investigation into this matter alongside the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. We are deeply grateful to the University of Chicago Medical Center doctors and all first responders involved,” Eric Lindquist, PE, President of Adjustable Concrete, said in a statement on the accident.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) preliminary report on the May 28 fatal gas explosion in Youngstown answered some questions about the explosion that killed one and injured nine. The blast caused structural damage to the 13-story Realty Tower Building that housed a bank, offices, and residences.
Sequence of events
A scrap removal crew working for contractor GreenHeart Companies was removing and relocating utility lines in the building’s basement in an area underneath the sidewalk. The contract was under the city of Youngstown in preparation for a city road improvement project.
A crew member and supervisor told NTSB officials they were unaware that the gas lines were still active. The crew member said he was told the gas line he cut was not transporting gas, but part way through cutting into the pipe, he heard a loud whistling sound and felt gas blowing into his face. The crew left the building, pulled the fire alarm, and immediately called 911; another crew member advised bank employees on the first floor about the leak.
Before the blast, the Youngstown Fire Department received reports of a gas odor from the public, and the fire department, police, and other emergency responders arrived at the scene. After the explosion, Enbridge Gas Ohio employees did a pressure test on the 1-inch diameter service line that exploded and the main line that fed it. They found that the service line didn’t hold pressure while hearing a hissing noise from the 1-inch line. The service line was capped, and the gas company employees found no other leaks.
NTSB response to blast
NTSB officials visually inspected the site after the blast, reviewed surveillance video, gathered physical evidence and information on the scrap-removal contract, and interviewed personnel related to the accident.
Going forward, the investigation will focus on the pipeline operator’s procedures for removing meters, record keeping, and abandoning gas lines. They will also focus on the ownership of the inactive line, companies associated with the building, and the contractor’s practices and policies for work crews.
The NTSB report identified GreenHeart as the partial owner of the Realty Tower Building.
In March 2024, Enbridge, a North American company based in Canada, bought local gas distribution company Dominion Energy Ohio and renamed it Enbridge Gas Ohio. Both are named in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Chase Manhattan Bank employee Akil Drake, 27, who was killed in the blast.
The gas meter for the line that was thought to be inactive was removed in June 2008. The NTSB report says Enbridge records indicate the inactive service line was manually cut and abandoned in September 2015.
NTSB has said the final report could take one to two years to complete.
A $140k contract to remove and relocate utility lines under a mixed-use building in Youngstown led to a May 28 fatal gas explosion that killed one and the evacuation of nearby buildings, displacing businesses and residents. That small contract, issued by the city of Youngstown to Youngstown-based GreenHeart Construction, could result in millions of dollars in damages for injuries and property losses due to the explosion.
The blast happened after a small construction crew removed utility lines in the building’s basement and made three cuts into a gas line that was thought to be abandoned and inactive. After the third cut, the crew realized the line was still pressurized with gas and that the situation was dangerous. They alerted the building’s occupants, including residents in apartments and employees of a Chase Manhattan Bank on the first floor, to evacuate.
One worker pulled the fire alarm, as well. But the building wasn’t fully evacuated when the blast occurred. The explosion killed Chase employee Akil Drake, 27, and injured seven others.
NTSB investigates explosion
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the cause of the blast and will release preliminary findings by early July. NTSB officials said the full report could take one to two years to complete.
It’s clear that the culprit in the devastation was the still-pressurized gas line being removed in the Realty Tower’s basement. A three-man crew cut it, releasing gas and leading to the explosion shortly after.
“The explosion apparently occurred approximately six minutes after the line was cut,” said Tom Chapman, an NTSB board member.
Depending on the conditions on the worksite at the time of the accident, noise or dust might have prevented the workers from knowing there was a problem when the first cut was made. Also, the smell of gas might not have immediately been a warning. One former plumber said it may have taken until after the third cut for the workers to realize there was a problem.
“Removing gas lines is a situation in which you expect to smell some gas,” said retired master plumber Jim Gerard of Plum, PA.
Multiple parties culpable
At this point, it is unclear who is blameworthy for the explosion. More than one party may be responsible, and even if only one party seems accountable, others will likely have to pay those who were hurt or whose businesses or properties were damaged by the explosion.
Chapman said that the gas line that caused the explosion was a service line coming off the main line. He noted that the NTSB’s role is to determine the facts regarding the blast, not to determine negligence.
While gas explosions of such a magnitude as the Youngstown blast are not common, Chapman said, “this is particularly catastrophic. The damage to the building is devastating.”
NTSB video footage of the Realty Tower shows a hollowed-out structure with little remaining on the first floor. Piles of rounded rebar-studded concrete rubble top mounds of cement dust littering the floor, and a long hunk of rusty pipe sticks up like a skewed flagpole.
It resembles a scene of devastation, as seen in war footage. But a simple few ill-placed cuts into a gas line caused it all to happen, killing Chase Manhattan Bank employee Akil Drake.
Contractor trustworthiness in question
The contractor involved in the work leading to the accident has a questionable history. Its reported work history at the Realty Building doesn’t include any work permit for the construction work that led to the blast.
According to WKBN, no building permits were issued for the utility line removal work at the Realty Building. The last permit issued to contractor GreenHeart Construction for work on the building was in 2020.
An engineer’s report issued by Youngstown Deputy Director of Public Works Chuck Shasho said the ground floor of the Realty Building collapsed in several places, along with the elevator shaft. Several of the building’s columns are now precarious, braced only by a single steel beam. The situation is so bad that it has caused the partial abandonment of downtown Youngstown. That is undoubtedly a prudent move.
The engineer’s report recommended closing all buildings within a 210-foot radius of the Realty Building. At the time of the report’s release, some nearby buildings had already been emptied. It appears that the blast could disrupt downtown activity for months.
Within that 210-foot radius, buildings include the Doubletree Hotel and International Towers, a residential building housing seniors. The report also recommended maintaining a hazard zone around the building until it’s braced or razed.
According to documentation uncovered by The Youngstown Vindicator, on April 25, the Youngstown Board of Control approved a $140,133 contract with GreenHeart to remove utility lines from under the sidewalk in front of the building and relocate them in the basement. Those lines included water, electrical, gas, sprinkler lines, furnace water tanks, and data and phone lines.
“I don’t know why they were cutting a gas line. They obviously thought it was dead,” said Charles Shasho, Youngstown’s Deputy Director of Public Works.
YO Properties 47 LLC, which owns the Realty Tower, issued a statement through its legal counsel, Bryan M. Ridder, stating: “YO Properties 47 LLC, in cooperation with the relevant governmental agencies, is investigating how and why this explosion happened. Pending this investigation, YO Properties 47 LLC will not be making any future public statements.”
According to The BlueBook, GreenHeart Companies, based in Boardman, OH, is a general contractor with 20 years of experience in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The company does residential and commercial construction, including malls, plazas, and freestanding single-use buildings. It has worked for Dollar Tree, Dunkin Donuts, and Stonebridge Restaurants. It also performs manufacturing and distribution facility construction, warehouses, apartment buildings, hotels, hospitals, and assisted care facilities.
First lawsuit filed
Drake’s family has filed a lawsuit over his death. One of their attorneys, Ben Whitman of Clark Fountain law firm in Florida, said other claims resulting from the catastrophe, such as injury and property claims, do exist. He wouldn’t speculate on how large a settlement might occur if his clients win the lawsuit, saying you can’t put a price on a human life.
“Our understanding is that [Akil] was trapped and passed away,” Whitman said.
Clark Fountain attorneys Don Fountain, Julie H. Littky-Rubin, and Ben Whitman filed the suit on behalf of some of Drake’s family, including Traesha Pritchard, Drake’s sister. She said in a statement, “Our family is devastated by Akil’s death. He was a wonderful son, brother, boyfriend, and community member who was innocently doing his job when this preventable tragedy took him from us.”
The lawsuit was also filed on behalf of Sharnette Crite-Evans, Drake’s mother.
The suit has many defendants, including but not limited to YO Properties 47, LLC, LY Property Management LLC, of Youngstown; GreenHeart Companies LLC, of Boardman, OH; the East Ohio Gas Company, of Cleveland; Enbridge Elephant Holdings, of Houston; Enbridge Alternative Fuel, of Columbus, OH; Dominion Energy Incorporated, of Richmond, and others.
GreenHeart did not return requests for comments on this story. YO Properties 47, LLC also didn’t respond to requests for comment. LY Property Management declined to comment.
Mathew Stoddard, a personal injury attorney based in Atlanta, said the costs of this and other lawsuits could be significant.
“When there’s a natural gas explosion, the results tend to be catastrophic…We had a client who was injured in that way and died several months later,” said Stoddard. “Natural gas is an extremely dangerous product that’s highly explosive.”
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