September 29, 2018
Princeton, NJ
A critically injured construction worker first discovered by crew team members near Shea Rowing Center this morning has died from his injuries after receiving medical treatment in Trenton.
Members of the lightweight women’s crew team first discovered him at approximately 8:20 a.m.
According to the team’s captain Grace Miles ’19, the team was on their morning practice warm-up run when they heard sounds of a crane and someone “screaming in agony.”
Miles said herself and five other teammates promptly ran to the source of the noise and saw that a “huge” 12-foot-wide section of metal building material had fallen on a construction worker.
The construction worker’s colleagues allegedly “couldn't hear him,” according to Miles, since they were in a removed area of the construction site.
Miles said that after trying to help the victim, her teammates promptly called the Department of Public Safety, which forwarded their call to 911 operators.
Officers from the Department of Public Safety responded to the incident at 8:26 a.m., along with the Princeton Police Department and the Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad, according to University Spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss.
Hotchkiss told the The Daily Princetonian in a written statement Saturday afternoon that workers from Carson Corp. told emergency workers that the man was “struck by a large beam that slipped off a truck while it was being loaded.” Carson Corporation is doing the directional drilling to run the cables under Lake Carnegie for the campus expansion.
First responders provided medical aid to the construction worker before transporting him to Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton for further treatment, Hotchkiss said.
Miles told the ‘Prince’ the rest of her team’s practice was cancelled and her teammates are “extremely emotionally distressed.”
Two other members of the women's lightweight crew team declined to comment, or did not respond to requests for comment from the ‘Prince,’ respectively.
According to crew team members, the construction near the boathouse has been in progress since March 2017. The construction involves running cables under Lake Carnegie as part of construction for the new campus, according to Emily Erdos ’19, a member of the open weight women’s crew team.
Erdos is also Head Opinion Editor for the ‘Prince.’
Press representatives from Capital Health Regional Medical Center declined to comment on the condition of the injured worker when the news first broke.
Hotchkiss said that students who were nearby at the time of the accident were offered counseling through University Health Services.
The Department of Public Safety directed comment to the Office of Communications and Michael Hotchkiss.
The story was updated at 3:20 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 29.
This story is breaking and will be updated as more information becomes available.
===========================================
Campus Electrical Infrastructure Upgrade Project The Princeton campus is currently fed electricity from two PSE&G substations - one at Elm Drive and one at Charlton Street. Combined, these two have a capacity of 30MW. While this is sufficient capacity for today, any significant new building construction will require a new substation to maintain an adequate supply. Studies performed in 2005 and 2013 have identified the need for a new 75MW substation to alleviate the capacity limit on PSE&G’s existing supply to campus. The University has decided to construct a new substation in West Windsor where PSE&G has sufficient capacity and power the campus from it. Substation construction requires 2 - 3 years and is already underway.
The project will proceed in four overlapping phases. First, directional drilling from Princeton Campus to West Windsor will provide a large conduit for power and OIT data lines between these two areas. This will provide future connectivity and allow the extension of the campus network to West Windsor. Next, when the new 69kv substation comes online in West Windsor, the existing substations and feeds will be upgraded, replacing 30 yr-old transformers at Elm Drive. The project will also construct a storm water basin for the new substation and replace obsolete switchgear in the turbine room under Dillon Gym to increase reliability and provide additional capacity.
Estimated completion
Spring 2019
Project team
Substation Construction
Valiant Power Group (link is external)
Directional Drilling
Carson Corporation (link is external)
Electrical Contractor
Armour and Sons Electric (link is external)
Office of Capital Projects
Brian Robertson, Senior Project Manager (link sends e-mail)
Engineering and Campus Energy
Thomas Nyquist, Executive Director (link sends e-mail)
Princeton University Civil Engineering and Construction
Sean Gallagher, Director, Operations Civil & Environmental Engineering (link sends e-mail)
Related links
Construction Impacts Map
Electrical Infrastructure Road Detours
Office of Capital Projects