Road closures for unstable Trump Tower antenna 'necessary,' report finds
City officials did the right thing in closing downtown roads in late August and early September because of an unstable antenna atop the Trump Tower, a report released on Friday said.
"The city's response was appropriate and necessary to satisfy municipal obligations set out in the building code for public safety," said the statement signed by John Heggie, Toronto's acting chief building official.
Police closed the intersection on part of Bay Street as well as parts of Richmond and Adelaide Streets near the tower on the morning of Aug. 31 after a building employee spotted the 45 metre antenna swaying.
Engineers were called in to investigate and pedestrians were kept away from the intersection where the 65-storey building is located.
Upon inspection, it was found the antenna did not pose a threat and streets were reopened the next day, Sept. 1.
'Large, complex building'
Friday's report noted that it took time to do a proper, full inspection.
"The Trump Tower is a large, complex building. The design and construction of building elements such as the spire and onion dome required a number of engineering firms with specialized knowledge," the report said.
Ulitimately, the findings by engineering consultants were reviewed by city officials and found to be "consistent with the determination that the unsafe condition was not present."
At the time of the road closure, Mayor John Tory said he was "very concerned" about the shutdown of downtown traffic and called for an investigation into what went wrong with the tower.
Tory called it "frustrating" that he couldn't directly contact the building's owners and asked ownership to "do a better job" of communicating information to the media and to the public.