Demolition under scrutiny after Detroit street collapse.
Officials said it may take them a while to figure out just what caused a school-bus-sized chunk of the Lafayette Boulevard sidewalk and traffic lane to collapse Wednesday night. The pavement fell into the hole in downtown Detroit where the demolished Lafayette Building once stood. The collapse forced the closure of Lafayette between Shelby and Griswold. MichCon crews had plugged a small gas leak by midmorning Thursday, and city water department crews were on the scene to deal with a broken water line.
Waymon Guillebeaux, vice president for the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., said several elements were involved in the collapse.
• A water main running beneath Lafayette broke, leaking water into the soil.
• A retaining wall enclosing the side of the Lafayette Building site was damaged.
• Heavy equipment used in the demolition and cleanup of the Lafayette Building site caused vibrations.
But the sequence of the failure, and its ultimate cause, remain unsolved.
A bulldozer and other earth-moving equipment pushed dirt into the gap to shore up retaining walls of a nearby building and the street itself.
The collapse site runs alongside the gaping hole where the recently demolished Lafayette Building once stood. Owned by the City of Detroit, the building was razed by Adamo Demolition Co. under a contract with the city’s Downtown Development Authority.
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