The removal of the tower crane for Multnomah County’s new 17-story Central Courthouse has been postponed until next month.

Multnomah County is constructing the courthouse on a full block at the corner of Southwest Madison Street and First Avenue in downtown Portland.

Crews were in the process of setting up a crane to begin removing the tower crane, according to county spokesman Mike Pullen, when underground utilities were discovered early Friday morning. They could have been damaged by the outrigger supports for the crane that will be used to remove the tower crane section by section.

Accordingly, the construction team will need to revise the layout before the tower crane can be removed sometime in July in a multiday process that requires street closures around the project site.

Hoffman Construction is serving as the construction manager-general contractor for the project, which was designed by SRG Partnership.

Ground was broken in October 2016, crews topped out the building in November 2018, and work is scheduled to wrap up by late spring 2020.

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Several downtown Portland streets will close June 21-24 to allow removal of the tower crane that has been used by general contractor Hoffman Construction during construction of the new Multnomah County Central Courthouse at Southwest First Avenue and Madison Street.

The work will also impact all forms of eastbound transportation connected to the Hawthorne Bridge, including motor vehicles, bicyclists and pedestrians, according to the county.

A traffic plan will be in place from 4:30 a.m. Friday, June 21 until 11 a.m. Monday, June 24.聽It will include the closure of Southwest Madison Street from Southwest Second Avenue to the Hawthorne Bridge. Further, eastbound access to the Hawthorne Bridge for motor vehicles, bicyclists and pedestrians will be maintained from northbound lanes of Naito Parkway.

From downtown, drivers may use Southwest Columbia Street eastbound, turn left at Southwest Naito Parkway and use the northbound ramp to access the bridge. This also will be the eastbound detour route for TriMet buses that use the Hawthorne Bridge.

Southwest First Avenue also will be closed from Southwest Main Street to Southwest Jefferson Street.

Westbound access to the Hawthorne Bridge will not be impacted.

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A man suffering a mental health crisis climbed to the top of a construction crane in Southeast Portland and stayed there for more than five hours before climbing down and being taken into police custody Wednesday.

According to the Portland Police Bureau, the agency’s Special Emergency Reaction Team and Crisis Negotiation Team responded to the area of Southeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Ankeny Street just after 1 p.m. to assist Central Precinct officers with a 鈥減erson in crisis who was in an elevated position on top of a crane.鈥�

Police say the man climbed atop the 290-foot crane at the聽5 MLK听产耻颈濒诲颈苍驳听蝉颈迟别 and that responding police followed him using harnesses and other climbing gear. Police said they were able to identify the man and talk with him as he paced back and forth along the crane’s catwalk looking at the job site below.

5 MLK is a 17-story building being constructed by general contractor聽Hoffman Construction.

鈥淩ight now we’re still investigating how the individual yesterday gained access to the crane,鈥� Hoffman Vice President Dan Drinkward said. 鈥淲e don’t want to go into detail on that, but what I can tell you is there are a number of strategies we employ to restrict access to the tower cranes.鈥�

According to Sgt. Brad Yakots, a public information officer with the Portland Police Bureau, the subject was not believed to be a construction worker. The crane was locked down and the site evacuated shortly after 1 p.m. on Wednesday.

After crisis negotiators climbed the crane and talked with the man for over two hours, he finally made his way down the crane’s internal ladders just before 6:30 p.m. and was taken into custody by officers.

The man reportedly scaled a perimeter fence to access the job site before climbing the crane. The operator was able to shut down the crane and call authorities as the man made his way up.

鈥�(The crane’s operator) is unharmed, and he did a very good job of shutting down the crane 鈥� shutting off its power so the crane won’t move,鈥� Yakots said in a media briefing.

Around the world, a spate of so-called 鈥渞ooftopping鈥� adventurers have trespassed onto building sites to climb tower cranes, tall buildings and other structures and then document their activities. As a result, anti-climb devices have become commonplace at sites in Europe and beyond. These include shields around the cranes’ bases with solid walls up nearly 10 feet tall, locking hatches in cranes’ masts and many other precautions.

Drinkward said security around cranes typically starts with a perimeter fence and continues inward. At the base of the crane there is normally a locked structure and gate, often with solid walls; there are intermediate hatches in the crane mast with locks; no-climb netting outside the crane; locks on the hatches that go into the cab; and at the top, a switch to kill power.

Nevertheless, no set-up is perfect, Drinkward said.

鈥淓ach of these crane installations is a custom installation,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he way you configure the crane is different at each site, so the strategies you use vary from project to project and they change as the project gets built.鈥�

Changes take place even as the building rises, he added.

鈥淚t’s a dynamic environment and you’re constantly balancing the security of the crane and the ability of the crane operator to safely move up and down to do his work,鈥� he said.

Drinkward praised the actions of the crane operator, who is a Hoffman employee.

鈥淲e’re really grateful for the quick action of our employees to secure the cab of the crane and ensure the individual in crisis was not able to operate the crane,鈥� he said.

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