A 300-pound, 7-foot tall aluminum letter "B" -- part of the new Ariba sign going atop One FreeMarkets Center Downtown -- fell 500 feet to the ground yesterday morning when a cable broke as workers tried to move it from a window washing platform onto the building for installation.

Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Workers remove a 7-foot tall aluminum letter "b" that fell from atop the 38-story One FreeMarkets Center, Downtown, yesterday. The letter is part of the new Ariba sign being installed on the building. No one was hurt. Click photo for larger image.

The sign crashed at the Wood Street end of PNC Plaza near Oliver Avenue about 10:30 a.m. but no one was injured.

Ariba spokeswoman Karen Kovatch said the company has asked East Coast Sign Advertising Inc., of Philadelphia, the company installing the letters, to provide a full report about what happened and how they will prevent a recurrence.

Bill Harper, project manager for East Coast Sign, declined to comment on the incident yesterday. East Coast is the same company that installed the Highmark signs on Fifth Avenue Place last year.

Kovatch said the Ariba project began in December and signs with the company name and logo have been successfully installed on other sides of the 38-floor building. Workers had installed the letter "A" on the south side of One FreeMarkets Center yesterday before the incident. Installation work was then immediately suspended for the day.

The 10-foot logo and letters are made of aluminum, with neon tubing and electronic transformers attached. The completed sign is about 83 feet long.