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Finally, Gas Works Park climbing apparatus comes down

Workers began dismantling climbing features from Gas Works Park’s iconic towers this week, ending an eight-month bureaucratic standoff that put preservation above protection. The City’s Landmarks Preservation Board twice blocked safety modifications to the park’s towers, concerned that removal of catwalks would impact the site’s industrial aesthetic, despite the fact that, since 2012, the structures have claimed three lives and seriously injured 11 others. Last July, 15-year-old Ballard High student Matas Johnson died after falling from the park’s tower rigging, prompting the call for tower modifications.

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