7 days ago
Downtown Aurora road, sidewalk still closed after bricks fell off building over the weekend
One side of the sidewalk and roadway on Galena Boulevard in downtown Aurora remained closed Monday after bricks fell off a nearby building over the weekend.
On Saturday at around 6 p.m., reports came into the city about bricks falling off the building at 102 and 104 E. Galena Blvd, according to Aurora Director of Development Services Josh Ream. He said about 200 bricks fell from the building's face, but the damage did not appear to be structural, and no injuries were reported.
At the time of the incident, 11 apartments and two businesses were evacuated, Aurora police said in a Facebook post Saturday evening. The sidewalk outside those two businesses, Superjumbo Records and Leon's Barber Shop, remained closed on Monday.
The two lanes of traffic closest to the building, which head toward Stolp Island, were also closed between Broadway and Lasalle Street on Monday.
The sidewalk and those two lanes are expected to stay closed until scaffolding is put up on the site, according to Ream. He said the sidewalk is set to open alongside one of the two closed lanes before the end of this week, with the other lane being reopened sometime in the following weeks.
The bricks that fell from the building were part of a nonstructural outer layer that did not appear to be connected to the main body of the building, Ream said.
Codes have changed since the construction of the building, and now that design would not be allowed, he said.
Once the scaffolding is up, city staff, an engineer and a mason are expected to look at the damage to determine how to best repair the building, according to Ream. He said the outer layer of bricks may need to be taken off entirely or the fallen bricks may just be replaced, depending on what is found.
The main entrance to the residences in the building, along with the main entrances to the two businesses, remain closed because of the closed sidewalk. Ream said there is a back entrance that residents can use, but that the scaffolding needs to go up to create a safe pedestrian pathway so the businesses can reopen.
Similar incidents have happened in the past. In 2019, bricks fell from the nearby Elmslie Building on the southwest corner of Galena and Broadway, which similarly did not hurt anyone, according to past reporting.
According to Ream, this is not an unusual occurrence in downtown Aurora due to the age of the buildings and the construction methods used at the time.
