Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It was back on Saturday, July 30 at around 1:13 a.m. ET when the seawall at the East end of the DL&W Terminal collapsed into the Buffalo River. At the time of the collapse, that area was not open to the public due to construction that was ongoing.
Since then, officials with the NFTA and other forensic underwater engineers and investigators have been looking into the area where the collapse happened. Nearly two weeks into the investigation of the collapse, the NTFA is still searching for answers.
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"Honestly, we just don't know anymore than we did when this happened," said NFTA spokesperson Helen Tederous. "It is something that's going to take a while before we get some data and the important questions get answered, such as how much is this going to cost to repair? Why did this happen? We really don't know, at this point."
Safety actions were immediately taken after the collapse, as it affected the NFTA's employee parking lot and part of the building doorways at the DL&W Terminal. According to Tederous, since the area was closed off to the public, no body was in the area when the collapse took place.
"No one was hurt, so it was really a blessing that it happened at that time, because sometimes some of the debris could have gone out to the Buffalo River, but nothing was badly affecting the public. So that's what happened, and we've really been looking into it since that happened," she said. "We're hoping to get some answers as soon as possible, and when that does happen, we'll make sure that people are aware of it, because there's certainly quite a bit of interest."
As it turns out, that area along the Buffalo River was a concern for the NFTA in past investigations, but not in the particular spot that collapsed back on July 30.
"We actually had an investigation back in 2017, and some of the concern was actually the other side, the other end. It's such an unusual and an old structure that was built in, like, 1914, so we're talking about a historic structure," Tederous explained. "So we're hoping to get more answers, and, of course, it's an underwater investigation so there's quite a bit of unknown. But we did do an inspection back in 2017, and we did find some structural concern at that West End. So we are continuing to let everybody know what's going on, and trying to determine the next steps. We really have no idea how much this is going to cost or what caused it. That investigation, while very unique, might be time consuming. It might take a little while before we do get some answers."
More of our conversation with Tederous is available in the player below: