FOND DU LAC, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Bricks falling from a Fond du Lac building have forced a busy downtown road to close.
It started in March and a month later, Macy Street is still closed to drivers.
“There are still bricks falling off the building!” said Captain Garth Schumacher of Fond du Lac Fire and Rescue.
he tells FOX 11 debris falling from the sky in Fond du Lac in the form of bricks from a more than 100-year-old building on Macy Street near Forest Avenue.
“The city knew there was a problem with it when that started falling apart. The first thing they did was shut the street down, so no one could travel on it.”
That, however, was more than a month ago now.
The road was initially closed when those few bricks began falling from the building.
Schumacher says the road remains closed today, though, because structural issues beyond just a few bricks falling were discovered.
“The city building inspector is working with the building owner to make sure that repairs are done, so that future instances of bricks falling onto the street and sidewalk aren’t happening anymore.”
According to a post on the city’s social media page, due to the height of the building and the nature of the damage, the city’s inspection office determined that none of the parking or driving lanes are safe.
There are only two one way streets that go through townMacy is one of them.
Capt. Schumacher says it’s more of a downtown bypass that drivers use, instead of going down Main Street, hitting all the lights.
“It’s a little quicker to use those one-way, so it has hampered the ability to do that bypass, at least coming south.”
Most locals, like Kevin Markland, tell FOX 11 the closure hasn’t been much of an inconvenience for them, but it may be for others traveling.
“I don’t go that way, but I have come through the main street, and traffic is twice as bad on Main Street coming through there, so anybody coming through Main Street is going to be affected by it.”
In the meantime, Schumacher says drivers aren’t the only ones impacted and stresses the importance of pedestrians keeping clear from that area.
“Bricks could fall off that building and we’d hate to go to a call there and, you know, have somebody hurt cause that can seriously injure someone walking by.”
The city of Fond du Lac says it’s in contact with the building’s owner.
It says it will take legal action, if necessary.
