GGRAsia – High work still off at a Galaxy site since March incident

High work still off at a Galaxy site since March incident

Apr 24, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Work from height and for scaffolding at a Phase 3 worksite for the Galaxy Macau casino resort is still banned a month after an incident saw the deaths of three workers from mainland China and injury to four others.

Macau’s Labour Affairs Bureau, also known as DSAL, confirmed the ongoing construction ban to GGRAsia on Friday, in response to our enquiry.

On Monday GGRAsia had approached Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd, the promoter of Galaxy Macau, asking whether there was any delay to the launch date of Phase 3 as a result of the lengthy suspension order on work at height at a site there, but had not received a reply by the time this story went online.

“The relevant contractor involved in the serious accident that took place at a work site in Cotai on March 24 has already submitted an investigation report on the incident to the Labour Affairs Bureau. The bureau is still reviewing the report,” DSAL told GGRAsia in an emailed statement.

The city’s police authorities had confirmed at the time that the incident had occurred on a worksite of Phase 3 at Galaxy Macau, the Cotai flagship casino resort of Galaxy Entertainment.

A statement released by the Macau government at the time, said the seven workers were clearing some articles in a lift shaft on the site, when some scaffolding collapsed and fell onto those workers.

DSAL told us on Friday: “The bureau had issued a suspension order that mandated the stopping of all works at height and scaffolding works at the site.”

It added: “In order to protect the safety of all other employees, the bureau is still reviewing whether the relevant contractor has fully implemented the work safety conditions as well as their investigation report, in other words, the suspension order is still in effect.”

Galaxy Entertainment had mentioned in a February statement that it was aiming at a first-half 2021 launch for a portion of Phase 3 of its Galaxy Macau casino resort, notwithstanding disruption linked to the outbreak of a novel coronavirus.

Phase 3 of Galaxy Macau is to feature 1,500 hotel rooms, some casino space, a large-scale arena with 16,000 seats, and 400,000 square feet (37,161 sq metres) of MICE space. The company announced in early November that it planned to open an Andaz hotel, a brand of Hyatt Hotels Corp, as part of the property’s expansion.