Lost panel forces Truman Building inspection

A sheet of plywood, seen top left, now covers the opening where a limestone panel fell from the facade of the Harry S Truman State Office Building Thursday evening. That event has prompted a structural engineer to inspect the building.
A sheet of plywood, seen top left, now covers the opening where a limestone panel fell from the facade of the Harry S Truman State Office Building Thursday evening. That event has prompted a structural engineer to inspect the building.

A sheet of plywood marks the spot where a limestone panel on the southwest corner of Jefferson City's Truman State Office Building was hanging until Monday night.

Office of Administration spokeswoman Ryan Burns said Friday the panel shifted, then fell into an area that already was barricaded because of an ongoing roof repair project.

No one was hurt when the panel fell to the ground.

But OA brought in a structural engineer to "determine what may have caused the failure," Burns said, and as a result of that analysis, "some adjacent panels were identified that warranted immediate anchoring and were secured to prevent potential failure.

"Further assessment has identified additional panels that (also) will need to be secured."

That means, she said, the "perimeter scaffolding in place around the building for the ongoing roofing project (now) will remain in place - and the pedestrian areas will remain blocked off - for safety purposes."

The exception, Burns said, are the Truman Building's main entrances, where the limestone panels "were previously re-anchored and are safe for entrance and exit."

She said OA "is working to complete a full assessment and will then begin the design and construction phases to re-anchor all of the limestone panels," in work that will be separate from the Truman Building roof project.

Right now, she said, it's too early to have either "an estimate on project duration or cost."

The Harry S Truman Building was authorized by the Legislature in 1979, but then-Gov. Joe Teasdale vetoed the plan as being unnecessary.

Lawmakers overrode Teasdale's veto in January 1980, and construction eventually began.

The eight-story, $48-million building is a single building on the first floor with separate seven-story buildings rising above that foundation but connected by an atrium between the two sides and a single roof across the top of the two structures.

It opened in 1983 during Kit Bond's second administration.