Although operations have resumed at the downtown Cincinnati construction site where a second-floor collapse injured more than a dozen workers, questions about both cause and culpability linger.

On the morning of Jan. 27 at the Horseshoe Casino job site, a steel beam supporting the second floor of the structure buckled while concrete was being poured. As a 60-by 60-foot section toppled downward, 13 construction personnel suffered fairly minor injuries, including cuts, bruises, and broken bones, for which they received treatment at a local hospital. One of those workers remains in "serious condition."

In the ensuing days, the city of Cincinnati and Messer Construction Co. have been fielding a battery of questions amid speculation about the integrity of building practices and safety protocols at the site of the $400 million project. The official cause of the structural failure—and thus any implied negligence or potential wrongdoing—remains open to conjecture until official reports are issued, pending a full investigation by Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA).