DR Safety Consultant, the company previously contracted by Imperial Pacific International to oversee safety compliance at the IPI construction site, has informed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration about the “unsafe” and “unauthorized” removal of tower cranes from the unfinished casino-hotel in Garapan.
DR Safety President David Rillera told OSHA that IPI is violating the tower cranes safety plan by dismantling them without a certified manager and workers.
But Jess Aquiningoc, the leader of IPI’s in-house construction team, told the Commonwealth Casino Commission on Thursday last week that he and his team are certified to do the job.
Eric Poon, the outgoing construction manager of IPI, also told the casino commission that the Department of Public Works granted them a special permit to take down the remaining tower cranes. He said tower crane No. 6 has been removed already and the team is now preparing to dismantle tower crane No. 5.
Aquiningoc also told the casino commission that the removal of the last tower crane will require a mobile crane.
But Rillera said no certified safety inspector had inspected the condition of the cranes before the removal proceeded, and if they did “it was inspected incorrectly.”
He said he sent OSHA photos of the cage and the ladder access to the cranes to show “how bad the tower crane looks.”
Rillera also told OSHA that whoever gave the construction team permission to take down the tower cranes “has no authorization to do so without proper documents from responsible federal and local government agencies.”
Rillera said he is expecting OSHA investigators to visit the construction site.
He earlier told Variety that his company, by contract, should still oversee the tower crane management, but they stopped working for IPI because the casino investor had not been paying them.
IPI owed his company $100,000, he added.
Tower crane No. 5 is being utilized to remove tower crane No. 6 from unfinished Imperial Pacific International casino-hotel in Garapan earlier this month.
