Three workers were injured.
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The workers were in lifts under the bridge to remove the beam when one end of it rolled off its support pier and hit Vicente Santoyo, 47, of Berwyn, according to reports.
One of the workers, a man whose exact age was not known, was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, where he was pronounced dead, Kushner said. Investigators with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said crews were removing large beams from the site early Tuesday morning. It’s 187 feet long, 45 tons of steel that came down. The accident has shut down Touhy Avenue and prompted lane restrictions on I-90. Two other workers were transported to Northwest Community Hospital with minor injuries.
OSHA officials say it has opened an investigation into the deceased worker’s employer, Omega Demolition Corp. of Elgin, and the general contractor, Judlau Contracting Inc. of NY. Traffic on Interstate 90 will not be affected. They should not take Higgins Road, since it turns into Touhy.
The construction work was part of a project to rebuild and widen the highway, reports said. The company paid minor fines for those violations: $3,465 in 2011 and $3,000 in 2006.
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Traffic on eastbound Touhy Avenue was being directed north on Wolf, east on Oakton and south on Mannheim before returning at Higgins Road.
