The developers of the collapsed Hard Rock Hotel construction project for months have said that the only thing stopping them from taking down the rubble at the corner of Canal and Rampart streets were the bodies of two workers entombed in the ruins since the Oct. 12 disaster.
Crews retrieved the second of those bodies on Monday, more than 10 months after the man-made calamity, and now the stage should in theory be set for what developers have portrayed as a more straight-forward demolition project taking down the 18-story building with cranes and heavy equipment.
Family members of Jose Ponce Arreola, the third and final worker whose body was recovered from the Hard Rock Hotel construction site, said Tue…
But a spokesperson for 1031 Canal, the hotel's developer, on Tuesday stopped short of offering a firm timeline for that project, saying one could come by the end of the week. The consortium has previously said its goal is to get the upper floors of the ruined structure down by the peak of hurricane season, which historically has been Sept. 10. The group has also long hoped to have the rest of the structure down by the collapse’s one-year anniversary, though few plans at the site have gone smoothly.
Whether or not that happens, it’s unlikely New Orleans will soon be able to turn the page on this grim chapter in the city's recent history. Dozens of injured construction workers have sued those behind the project. So have the families of the three workers who were killed when the upper floors pancaked, and so have neighboring businesses whose operations the disaster interrupted. The disputes remain unresolved.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is still completing its final report and the findings could help authorities determine if those responsible for the building’s failure should face criminal charges.
And while crews are confident the remains they’ve recently recovered belong to the two workers trapped in the rubble, the families of Jose Ponce Arreola and Quinnyon Wimberly await the results of forensic examinations and DNA tests to confirm their identities — another lengthy process before they can move on to the grueling task of laying their loved ones to rest.
“No family should go through this,” an attorney for Ponce’s family, Arturo Jauregui, said late Tuesday morning during a news conference across Canal Street from the hotel where Ponce's remains had been removed the day before. “There’s a lot of blame to go around.”
Family members of Jose Ponce Arreola, the third and final worker whose body was recovered from the Hard Rock Hotel construction site, said Tue…
The 63-year-old Ponce’s family knew crews had promised to not demolish the collapsed “eyesore” as long as his body was still in the rubble, and they were thankful everyone kept their word, Jauregui said.
But the Ponces wanted to be clear: They hoped both city leaders and area construction companies collaborated on preventing anything like this from happening again.
“It fell down because of shoddy construction,” Jauregui said, standing next to Ponce’s brother, Sergio, who held a poster-sized photo of Jose. “Companies … did not do their job.”
Jose Ponce paid a steep price for those failures, Jauregui said. When he showed up to work the day he was killed, he had plans to fly to his native Mexico two weeks later to pay tribute to his mother, who had just died.
Alluding to his family’s plans to eventually cremate him, Jauregui said that Ponce will now only return to Mexico as “ashes in an urn.”
“We don’t want this to happen again,” Jauregui said.
A spokesperson for 1031 Canal issued condolences to the loved ones of Ponce and Wimberly, whose body had been pulled out Aug. 8, following delays surrounding weather, equipment problems and clashes between the city officials and developers. Crews had recovered the third worker killed at the site, Anthony Magrette, the day after the collapse.
1031 Canal’s statement added that the recoveries of the workers meant contractors could progress toward demolishing the ruins’ upper floors first, then the parking garage below that. The last step would be the removal of all debris from the corner of Canal and Rampart, one of the busiest in the city.
Sergio Ponce Arreola, left, walks with attorney Arturo Jauregui on Tuesday, August 18, 2020 as they pass the collapsed Hard Rock Hotel where Sergio's deceased brother, Jose Ponce Arreola, was pulled from the rubble on Monday.
Though a possible release date for OSHA’s final report on the disaster remained unclear Tuesday, months ago the agency issued its preliminary findings, and 11 contractors working at the 18-story hotel when it pancaked were cited for a range of purported safety violations.
Sergio Ponce Arreola on Tuesday directed a message in Spanish at those contractors as well as city leaders. He asked them to consider erecting a park on the land where the Hard Rock was supposed to stand. Then, he said, dedicate it to the memories of Ponce, Wimberly, Magrette and other fellow builders who have died on the job.
“No more hotels” there, Sergio Ponce said.
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