The Government Center Garage demolition project is shown in this summer 2022 file photo. Photo by James Sanna | Banker & Tradesman staff

A Brockton-based contractor faces $1.2 million in fines in connection with the partial collapse of the Government Center Garage in March, which led to the death of a worker on his first day on the job.

The U.S. Department of Labor on Tuesday announced that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited JDC Demolition Company for eight “egregious-willful” violations and other serious workplace safety violations. An OSHA inspection determined that the company “failed to adequately train its workers on the demolition plan and safety management system to help them recognize and avoid unsafe conditions.”

Heavy equipment operator Peter Mosini died March 26 when the partially demolished eighth floor of the garage collapsed, dropping the 11,000-pound excavator he was operating 80 feet.

The garage is being demolished to make way for the latter phases of Bulfinch Crossing, a huge, mixed-use development by HYM Investment Group and National Real Estate Advisors. The project’s Sudbury residential tower opened in 2019 and its One Congress office tower is slated to open next year. A lab building and a second residential tower are planned for areas currently occupied by the garage.

In its announcement of the fine, OSHA said Mosini was ordered onto the piece of the garage that later fell after another worker who was already working on that section flagged safety concerns.

“Specifically, on the morning of the collapse, another heavy equipment operator, who had started demolition on a concrete beam on an upper floor bay, told the foreman they had concerns about the floor’s safety,” the Labor Department reported Tuesday. “Despite the employee raising safety concerns to the foreman, a second employee was assigned to operate the excavator. That worker, the deceased, never received a safety briefing and was not trained to follow the engineer’s demolition plan.”

The Labor Department said OSHA also found that JDC Demolition “deviated from the demolition plan by imposing unsafe loads, in the form of heavy equipment, on the partially demolished seventh, eighth and ninth floors. The demolition plan prohibited the placement of heavy equipment on partially demolished floor bays.”

“JDC Demolition Company Inc. knew the heavy equipment on the partially demolished floors were over the weight limits and still allowed a worker, unaware of the hazards, to do demolition work,” OSHA Regional Administrator Galen Blanton said in a statement. “This willful and egregious disregard for safety cost a workers’ life and exposed other employees to potentially fatal hazards.”

OSHA also cited John Moriarty and Assoc. Inc., the demolition project’s general contractor, for four serious violations, with $58,008 in proposed penalties for failing to ensure the partially demolished precast concrete floors were strong enough to support the load of mechanical equipment, failing to cover or secure floor holes, and other violations. As general contractor, an OSHA spokesperson said, Moriarty is ultimately responsible for site safety and its actions also endangered Moriarty’s own employees.

Both companies have 15 business days from the receipt of citations and penalties to comply, request a conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent review commission.

Mosini’s estate sued Morairty, HYM and project engineer GZA Geoenvironmental Inc. for wrongful death in Suffolk Superior Court in July.

HYM and National Real Estate Advisors sued JDM and Moriarty for breach of contract and contractual indemnity in Suffolk Superior Court in August. According to the civil complaint, JDM’s and Moriarty’s contracts require them to pay HYM and National Real Estate Advisors back for property damage connected to the collapse, engineering inspections required after the collapse, “employee-related costs,” “tenant-related costs” and payments sought by the MBTA to cover the cost of subway diversions caused by the collapse. The garage collapse caused the MBTA to shut the Orange Line and Green Line subway tunnels that run below the garage for several days while structural engineers searched for potential damage.

Banker & Tradesman staff writer James Sanna contributed to this report.