Building Collapse Pekin Township Office UPDATE - Power Lines Down
Date: September 7, 2023 Contact: Chief / Interim City Manager John Dossey
Building Collapse Pekin Township Office UPDATE – Power Lines Down
At approximately 4:30pm Thursday September 7, 2023 contractors were working on the Pekin Township building. As contractors were working on demolition, the South wall collapsed. At this time the wall took down several powerlines in the area and live power lines were down in the roadways.
Out of an abundance of caution, emergency personnel responded and expanded the safe zone from both pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Broadway is closed between 4th and Elizabeth. Elizabeth remains closed between 4th and Broadway. 5th Street is closed from Broadway to Court. 4th street remains OPEN for through traffic north and south bound.
Power is out in the downtown area. There have been many inquiries as to how long power will be out. At this time, we have no estimate on when power will be restored. City officials have been in contact with Ameren. Ameren has several crews working to switch power at substations to isolate the outage to only the Township Building. Ameren has made this a priority for the City and are working to isolate the outage to only the immediate area of the collapse.
The City of Pekin will continue to provide updates as they become available, but for now ask that everyone please avoid the area as there are high risk of safety concerns due to live powerlines being down.
John V. Dossey, Chief of Police