MADISON, Wis. (AP) - University of Wisconsin System officials lobbying legislators for more than $1 billion for construction and renovations got a talking point Sunday after a concrete slab somehow fell off the system’s headquarters building and plunged three stories to the sidewalk below.
The slab fell off 19-story Van Hise Hall on the UW-Madison campus on Sunday, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. It hit the sidewalk in front of the building’s main entrance. Part of the slab shattered. The rest of it landed mostly intact on a dumpster. No one was hurt.
UW-Madison officials are investigating why the slab fell. They said no construction work is going on that would have caused the incident. The dumpster was in front of the building for use during a restroom renovation.
Gov. Tony Evers’ capital budget included more than $1 billion for system renovations but Republicans on the state building commission voted down every project in the spending plan last month. The Legislature’s GOP-controlled finance committee will craft its own plan as it revises the 2021-23 state budget.
System officials tweeted a photograph of the shattered slab on Sunday saying Van Hise has exterior features similar to other system buildings that are aging and in disrepair, citing UW-Stevens Point’s Albertson Hall and UW-Green Bay’s Cofrin Library as examples.
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