Demolition “mishap” brings traffic to standstill…

Collapsing wall brings down power lines, snarls traffic.

A demolition project at the former Boyer Printing building in Pennsylvania came to a halt Tuesday afternoon when a portion of the front wall fell onto an electric pole, snapping it in half. No one was injured, said fire Commissioner Duane Trautman.

P.G. Martin Excavators of Lebanon is doing the demolition, which started in earnest on Monday, Trautman said. The building, on the southwest corner of the intersection, will be replaced with landscaping and off-street parking for an existing one-story office building and a 15,000-square-foot Albright Life Center eldercare facility that will open next year.

Tom Cahill watched the demolition from his used-furniture and appliance store on the northeast corner of the intersection. Shortly before 2:45 p.m., Cahill said, it appeared that crews, using a large piece of machinery, were trying to pull the roof toward the back of the three-story building.

But the roof fell forward, crashing into the side of the building and throwing bricks onto the electric line. That caused the pole to crack in half, Cahill said.

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