BREAKING: Concrete wall falls on construction worker

A concrete wall at the Mound Street site where a new city of Sarasota lift station is under construction fell on the chest of a 34-year-old worker Tuesday afternoon, the Sarasota County Fire Department reported.

The unidentified male was conscious and breathing, Capt. Susan Pearson, the department’s public information officer, told The Sarasota Observer. He was taken to the 10th Street Boat Ramp to await the Bayflight helicopter for transport to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, she said.

The incident was reported at 2:48 p.m. Tuesday. The trauma center was contacted at 2:53 p.m. about the need for emergency transport, Pearson said.

As far as she knew, Pearson said the man was the only one injured when the wall fell.

The city has been working for months to build Lift Station 87 in Luke Wood Park as a measure to prevent repeated, accidental sewage discharges in Hudson Bayou. Osprey Avenue between Mound Street and Bahia Vista Street is scheduled to remain closed until February 2012. Traffic has been detoured along U.S. 41.