Dive Brief:
- St. Paul-based Berwald Roofing Co. announced it has been cleared to resume work today on the roof of the new Minnesota Vikings stadium.
- Last month, 35-year-old Jeramie M. Gruber, of Northfield, MN, died when he fell 50 feet from the roof of the unfinished stadium. Another worker was also injured in the fall.
- Although Berwald is set to restart work, the company said in a statement that it is still working with investigators to determine the cause of the incident.
Dive Insight:
A Minnesota OSHA report last week said the workers "fell and slid down the roof," and one of them struck a post. The other, Gruber, broke through the roof's guardrail and fell to the platform below. As of the Sept. 2 report, OSHA was still investigating if Gruber had been wearing a harness at the time of the fall.
After the incident, the StarTribune reported that Berwald had been cited nine times in the past for serious violations on other jobs, and has paid fines of more than $12,500. Most of those violations involved injuries to roofers who were not wearing safety harnesses or protected from falls by guardrails, according to the StarTribune.
Gruber was the first casualty during work on the $1 billion, 65,000-seat U.S. Bank Stadium. The general contractor, Minneapolis-based Mortenson Construction, and the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority overseeing the project, broke ground on the stadium at the end of 2013. It is expected to open during the summer of 2016.
