SALEM — The heavy exterior wall panel that fell last summer from the $106 million state courthouse under construction on Federal Street, seriously injuring a worker, failed because a contractor used the wrong type of screws, an investigation revealed.
Lighthouse Masonry Inc. of New Bedford used zinc-coated screws "that were not the type specified in the design of the fastener system," the state Division of Capital Asset Management said yesterday in a statement.
Use of the wrong screws was the "direct cause" of the limestone panel falling, the state said.
As a result, the masonry company will be barred for one year from bidding on public building projects after Jan. 9, which is when its current certification expires.
In November, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued three "serious" citations against Lighthouse Masonry Inc. in connection with the accident.
Lighthouse Masonry, which appealed OSHA's ruling, did not return phone calls yesterday.
The actions against Lighthouse were taken following an investigation into the June 15 accident, when a 500-pound limestone exterior wall panel fell four stories, smashing into pieces on the ground and striking an employee of another subcontractor. The worker, who was on his coffee break at the time, suffered serious leg and other injuries and was taken to a Boston hospital.
The investigation was conducted by Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, a national forensic engineering firm with an office in Boston. SGH worked with OSHA, the state said.
Lighthouse Masonry should have used polymer-coated screws, SGH said. The zinc-coated, self-drilling fasteners failed due to "hydrogen embrittlement," or cracking.
The engineering firm found "similarly failed fasteners" when it was removing other panels. All of the limestone panels were taken down following the accident.
The investigation also found that "the adhesive anchor from the stone that fell was installed in an improperly cleaned hole." However, it said the anchor failed after the stone panel hit the ground.
Lighthouse Masonry has been working on the court project since the accident and is currently reinstalling the limestone panels under "extraordinarily strict on-site inspection," DCAM said.
The work began in November and should be finished by February.
DCAM said it did not take action earlier because the investigation and an internal review process were under way.
OSHA proposed fines of $10,200 against Lighthouse Masonry for the violations, which included not protecting employees from falling objects in a nonbarricaded area below a scaffold.
"OSHA issues serious citations when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known," the federal agency said in a statement.
Lighthouse contested the Nov. 17 citations, and the case is now in litigation, OSHA said.
Daniel O'Connell's Sons, the construction manager for the project, was also cited by the federal agency.
Initially, OSHA issued three serious citations against Daniel O'Connell's Sons and proposed $5,700 in fines, but two of the violations were reduced to "other-than-serious" after the company settled the case and paid a penalty of $3,990.
The one remaining serious citation for an "obstructed exit access" was unrelated to the accident, the company said.
"We brought in all our documentation, all the photographs and all our safety plans, and walked through all that with OSHA," said Jeff Bardell, vice president of Daniel O'Connell's Sons. "Basically, they agreed with us that we were doing a pretty decent job and this was an isolated incident."
The case against Daniel O'Connell's Sons was closed Dec. 21.
Following the accident, the injured worker, Vincent Leahy, 34, of Stoneham, was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston with multiple injuries.
Bardell said Leahy is out of the hospital, but he could not provide further details.
Leahy's employer, General Mechanical Contractors of Auburn, a heating an air-conditioning subcontractor, did not return phone calls yesterday.
General Mechanical was not cited by OSHA.
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