The operator of a 100,000-pound drilling rig was seriously injured after the machine overturned outside Oregon Health & Science University Southwest Portland Friday morning, trapping the worker inside.
The operator, who has not been publicly identified, was extricated by Portland Fire & Rescue and taken to a trauma center, said department spokesman Lt. Laurent Picard.
No one else was hurt, Picard said.
The department previously said in a since-deleted tweet that the operator was not seriously injured. Portland Fire & Rescue referred to the rotary drilling machine as a “construction crane” in a separate The tweet.
The injured worker is an employee of Vancouver-based construction company Pacific Foundation and was working at the site of a hospital expansion project, according to Tim Johnson, general manager of Skanska, the construction and development company behind the project.
Skanska is investigating what caused the rig to capsize, Johnson said in a statement Friday afternoon.
Johnson said Skanska does not have permission to release the name of the employee, who is being treated at Oregon Health & Science University Hospital.
Portland Fire & Rescue firefighters blocked traffic on Southwest Campus Drive near the Casey Eye Institute after a construction crane overturned nearby on Friday, Aug. 12, 2022.Maxine Bernstein
Fire officials received reports of the overturned rig shortly before 10:45 a.m., Picard said.
Construction crew members deployed a jack to raise the platform, helping rescuers extricate the operator, Portland Fire & Rescue said in a statement. The tweet on Friday afternoon.
Hospital workers surveying the scene told a reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive that the platform was on the site of a new hospital tower.
Several fire trucks blocked traffic on Southwest Campus Drive outside the Casey Eye Institute around 11:15 a.m. Rescue workers and fire trucks were leaving the scene by 11:30 a.m.
A representative for Oregon Health & Science University told a reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive to contact Skanska for information about the incident.
This story will be updated.
— Catalina Gaitán and Maxine Bernstein
