Bridgeport Hotel build still on track despite scaffolding accident

Builders provide an update on their timeline and a Safework SA investigation.

Peri Strathearn

May 21, 2020 — 2 min read

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The new Bridgeport Hotel is still on track to be finished early next year despite a recent mishap, a building site manager says.

A scaffold collapsed onto East Terrace, Murray Bridge as a storm front passed just before 6pm on Tuesday.

The accident happened after working hours and no-one was injured, but emergency services needed to block off the road while the mess was cleaned up.

Safework SA is now investigating the incident.

But inspectors declared the site safe on Wednesday, and Buildwise Construction site manager Sigi Stovell said the build was still on schedule.

He thanked police and firefighters for their quick response.

"Obviously (yesterday) was an event we didn't want to have, but … Safework were notified immediately and visited (on Wednesday)," he said.

"The site was deemed to be safe – we're allowed to operate still."

With foundations laid and an underground car park mostly fleshed out, workers have begun erecting the concrete columns that will be a feature of the finished hotel's ground floor, and which will prop up the six storeys to come.

Mr Stovell said passers-by would notice more and more progress over the coming months.

"The next couple of layers are still quite slow, in a conventional building style, but once we get to level two in a period of eight weeks we'll go from level two to the roof," he said.

"By Christmas it'll look like the building that's going to be here."

Interior works will continue into 2021.

The pub is due to open in time for next Easter, and the hotel rooms above sometime after that.