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Posted at 9:50 a.m., Friday, August 10, 2007

Worker dies in Vegas Strip construction site accident

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS — State safety authorities on Friday were investigating the death of a 65-year-old worker who was killed in a mishap at a Las Vegas Strip resort construction site.

Harvey Englander of Las Vegas died shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday when a heavy counterweight hit him while he was performing maintenance on a construction lift system at one of several towers at the MGM Mirage Inc. CityCenter project, officials said.

Englander was struck by the counterweight system as he was servicing the temporary elevator, Clark County fire spokesman Scott Allison said.

Stephen Coffield, acting chief of the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Enforcement office in Las Vegas, said an investigation could take several weeks.

Work resumed late Thursday at CityCenter project, where officials say some 3,600 workers are engaged in round-the-clock construction of a $7.4 billion mixed-use hotel, casino, condominium and retail project on 66 acres.

It was the third death at the CityCenter construction site this year.

In February, two construction workers were crushed to death and two other men were injured when a pair of 3,000-pound walls toppled at the site between the Bellagio and Monte Carlo hotel-casinos.

Yvette Monet, a spokeswoman for MGM Mirage, expressed confidence in Perini Building Co., the firm hired to build the project. The resort is scheduled to open in 2009.

The death was the second in a week at separate Las Vegas Strip casino construction sites.

A worker died after he and two other men fell Aug. 2 from a 30-foot wall at the site of the Fontainebleau Resort construction project.

OSHA is investigating that death, along with the collapse Monday of a section of a multistory parking garage at the Fontainebleau site. No one was hurt in that mishap.

The $2.8 billion Fontainebleau project, by privately held developer Fontainebleau Resorts LLC, is due to open in late 2009 with 3,889 rooms, a casino, hotel, condominium and spa.