Falling steel beams, a scaffolding collapse and a fatal hit and run in a work zone have left multiple workers injured or dead across Madison construction sites in 2026.
On Jan. 31 a Findorff contracted construction worker fell 40 to 50 feet when a steel beam from the Wisconsin History Center fell through several floors at the site. Another worker was trapped underneath a separate beam for almost an hour due to the incident.
This was not the last beam to fall under Findorff, however. On May 18 a steel brace from Monona Terrace, built by Findorff, fell on Joyce Robertson-Hoyt’s car while she was driving through the parking structure of the building.
The John Nolen Drive reconstruction project runs along the terrace and the project engineer, Dan Bauknecht, told The Daily Cardinal some people tried to blame the construction for the incident since Robertson-Hoyt was in the construction zone. According to Bauknecht this is highly unlikely, and said his project had nothing to do with the beam falling.
“People like to say that they can feel construction, but I don’t think there’s anything we could have possibly been doing that would have resulted in that happening,” Bauknecht told the Cardinal. “All four bolts on the beam would have had to fail.”
Bauknecht also said the only thing his team had in the area was traffic controlled devices. There was no vibration or digging near the incident that could have caused the beam to fall.
Another Findorff project resulted in injury on May 13 when a construction worker fell 30 feet after dangling from a building near the intersection of Johnson St. and Bassett St. The man is alive but was hospitalized after scaffolding and machinery tipped over.
Findorff said the worker sustained minor injuries and was released from the hospital on the same day.
“We care deeply about our people and teams,” Findorff wrote in a statement to the Cardinal. “The health and safety of everyone on our job sites is our highest priority. We are addressing the cause of the incident and making improvements as needed.”
Bauknecht said in his 15 years of experience most construction accidents tend to be isolated occurrences, usually stemming from distraction.
“We’ve had cuts and bruises, but in every instance when those things happen, it’s been an isolated incident because we have programs in place that address those issues,” Bauknecht said. “Almost every bad outcome can be traced to a person who wasn’t paying attention, not a failure of safety devices.”
A hit and run on April 30 killed a construction worker who was setting up cones along South Stoughton Rd and Buckeye Rd around 10 p.m. The man responsible, Michael Nathan-Lawrence Martin, is now facing numerous charges, including a second Operating While Intoxicated charge.
According to Bauknecht the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has regulations for the majority of construction safety situations, but one thing he finds lacking is the enforcement.
“The one thing that’s generally not there is a police presence, an enforcement mechanism, but it could be,” Bauknecht said. “The only thing that would prevent people from speeding through work zones is having that police presence, but it’s challenging to get that on a consistent basis.”
He cited a February 5 accident caused by Kathleen Borgwardt going more than 30 mph over the 25 mph limit and speeding through a crosswalk on South Park Street, killing high school senior Alexander "Sasha" Rosen. Bauknecht said part of the defense for Borgwardt blamed the John Nolen Dr. reconstruction for causing traffic and for rerouting traffic to South Park St. to avoid large jams.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation told the Cardinal they use numerous safety measures such as reduced speed limits, weekly traffic control inspections and traffic control plans designed specifically for each project that meet the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices standards.
Bauknecht again noted the importance of police presence at construction sites. He said construction projects on high traffic roads, like John Nolen Drive, have many conflict points due to the different users such as bike riders, pedestrians, cars and semi trucks.
“Worker safety doesn’t necessarily protect the traveling public,” Bauknecht said. “People have to be moved over to somewhere they can safely navigate the road. A natural consequence of that is work zones appear to be long.”
