Work had not yet resumed, as of Friday, July 21, to fully remove the San Pedro billboard after two crew members were injured earlier in the week.
The workers fell from the crow’s nest of a boom lift — or “cherry picker” — that was mounted on a truck on Tuesday. They fell about 20 feet onto the dirt landscape below the billboard, in the 400 block of North Gaffey Street, near the end of the 110 Freeway as it takes motorists into San Pedro.
“I have heard that the workers are recovering well,” Los Angeles Councilmember Tim McOsker said on Friday. “I don’t have direct access (to their condition) of course, but have heard that from uncorroborated sources. That’s always been our highest priority.”
It is not clear when work might resume, McOsker said. Doing so might involve the company that owns the sign, Regency Outdoor Advertising in Hollywood, having to get more permits from the city of Los Angeles. Regency used a subcontractor to do the work, which was scheduled to take place from Monday tho Wednesday. The accident occurred just before noon on Tuesday.
The sign itself was dismantled but the billboard’s metal framework and concrete base remain in place.
“While my demand is that they get back to work on a (new) schedule,” McOsker said in a telephone interview, “they may have to pull new permits” before work can resume.
His office would assist in that effort, he said.
The billboard is owned by Regency but it sits on city property. Regency’s lease ran out in December and city officials have been trying to get the company to remove the sign since then.
Regency did not return a call seeking comment.
It is still not clear what happened to the equipment, but a connector piece at the base — anchored in a truck bed — appeared to have broken or twisted during use, tipping the two workers, who were some distance away, out of the attached basket and onto the ground. The piece appeared to have come “undone” from the base in the…
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