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Two construction workers were rescued Tuesday after a window washer unit collapsed on the side of the 48-story Duke Energy Center under construction uptown.
One of the men dangled 40 feet in the air from a lifeline while the other scrambled to the safety of a small roof. Both were equipped with safety harnesses and were unhurt, said Carlos Vergara, safety coordinator for the Batson-Cook Co., an Atlanta-based general contractor.
The two were waterproofing and caulking windows on the side of the grayish-blue tower on the southern end of uptown between South Tryon and Church streets at Stonewall.
The incident is under investigation, and the company will file an incident report with the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, Vergara said. It appears one of the motors that winches the platform and its steel cables up and down might have malfunctioned, he said.
Workers responded by shutting down one block of Stonewall Street and rescuing the dangling worker with a cherry picker. The other worker was standing on a roof about 20 feet off the ground.
