Owner Warned Before Pier Collapse, Inspector Says

The owner of a nightclub operating on a pier was warned that the structure was unstable the day before it collapsed, according to the president of a company hired to inspect cracks in the pier.

Three people were killed and several dozen injured when Pier 34, which supported the new nightclub Heat, crashed into the Delaware River on May 18.

A day earlier, “we gave them a written report stating that the foundation was slanting toward the river and there were twisted metal supports,” Commerce Construction Corp. President Terry Zettle said Tuesday.

“Let me put it this way: We were amazed that they had people on that pier after we told them of what we found,” he said. “We surely didn’t think they were going to have people on that pier.”

A lawyer for real estate developer Michael Asbell, the pier’s owner, declined comment. Telephone calls to Robert Lane, a lawyer for nightclub owner Eli Karetny, went unanswered Wednesday.

Commerce Construction was hired May 15 by Karetny to look into the nature of cracks in the pier’s concrete surface, Zettle said.

The Bridgeport, N.J., company sent two divers and a supervisor on May 16 to examine the pier and reported its findings to the nightclub management the following day.

A copy of Commerce’s report to Karetny has been given to investigators.

Urban Engineers Inc., the company investigating the collapse for the city, has sent divers into the water to map debris and examine the condition of pilings supporting Pier 34, city spokeswoman Barbara Grant said.

“We will have a preliminary assessment, I would think, by the end of the week or the beginning of next week,” Grant said. A full report will not be finished for at least three weeks, she said.

The work will not be completed easily, officials said.

“The water is murky,” said Ed McLaughlin, commissioner of the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections. “The view is about 12 inches. It’s very hard to see under there.”