[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 48 (Tuesday, April 22, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S3410]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            L'AMBIANCE PLAZA

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, tomorrow, the 23d of April, will mark the 
10th anniversary of a major tragedy in the State of Connecticut. It was 
April 23, 1987, that 28 workers in Bridgeport, CT, lost their lives at 
a place called L'Ambiance Plaza, a construction site. My colleague from 
Indiana may recall that it was the largest industrial accident we had 
ever had in the State of Connecticut. It occurred during the 
construction of an apartment building using a technique called lift-
slab construction. You would actually construct the floors and then, by 
hydraulic lift, lift the floors up. Within a matter of seconds, these 
floors collapsed and took the lives of 28 of my constituents from 
Connecticut.
  It was a dreadful day, one that people still talk about in our State. 
In fact, early next week there will be a memorial service, with the 
families and others who are still feeling the pain of the loss of their 
loved ones.
  We ended up banning, in the State of Connecticut, lift-slab 
construction. There were Federal regulations put out on that 
construction as well. As a result of that accident, in fact, my 
colleague from Connecticut, Congressman Christopher Shays, who 
represents that congressional district, he and I introduced legislation 
to create some new requirements to monitor health and safety on 
construction sites. That legislation would have created an office of 
construction safety. It would have created a 15-member advisory 
committee on construction safety.
  I should back up and point out that of all trades, the construction 
trades suffer the most injuries and death. Even with a lot of 
improvements, it is highly dangerous work. So, even with the 
improvements that have been made in occupational safety and health, 
construction work, just by its nature, as one would well imagine, is 
very dangerous. What we were looking for was to create some specific 
emphasis and focus on the construction trades. So that bill required 
those two points and further required increased civil and criminal 
penalties when there were knowing violations of occupational safety and 
health standards, and it would require employers to develop specific 
procedures to ensure health and safety on building sites. The bill was 
never approved. We offered it and had hearings on it, but it was never 
approved.
  If you, Mr. President, and my colleagues had seen L'Ambiance Plaza, 
the devastation there, I think most would have come to the same 
conclusion that I did, that we need to do a better job in monitoring 
these construction sites. I pointed out, it was the single largest 
construction tragedy in the State of Connecticut. The problem is that 
lift-slab construction had caused hundreds of injuries around the 
country, yet in most instances, on the specific site, the injury, 
although it was bad, had not resulted in a death, so reporting was not 
required.
  So there was no warning ahead of time about the dangers of this type 
of construction. As a result of our efforts, you would have been 
required to report those incidents when they happened so the collective 
information would be gathered and better decisions could be made about 
this kind of construction.
  So, next week we will again gather to commemorate the lives of the 28 
men whose lives were lost on that date 10 years ago. Like all of my 
colleagues, I hope never to have to attend another such ceremony. My 
hope is still that we will do a better job in improving the enforcement 
and the penalties involved, because that seems to be the only way we 
get the kind of compliance that is necessary.

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