Still no timeline on when crane that collapsed on Dallas apartments will be removed

DALLAS - A plan to remove the crane that fell onto a Dallas apartment complex is slowly moving forward, but there is still no timeline on when it will be removed.

The crane collapsed on the Elan City Lights Apartments during severe weather last month, killing one woman and displacing more than 500 residents.

The building has been deemed uninhabitable.

Residents still have questions about when they might be able to retrieve their cars and other belongings.

MORE: Residents displaced by crane collapse still waiting to get their belongings, cars

Next week will mark one month since the crane collapsed.

Initially, there was a plan to have a disaster recovery contractor pack up residents' belongings, and those items were supposed to be available to be picked up starting this month.

But now, it seems those plans have been put on hold.

“Yea, I'm surprised nothing has changed,” said Giovanna Castellanos, who lives nearby.

Neighbors of the apartments drive or walk past the disaster site every day.

The fallen crane and destroyed apartment building remain virtually untouched since the accident on June 9.

“I would expect by now things would've moved along quicker,” Castellanos added. “The road’s still closed, it just looks like nothing has been done, so I can only imagine how much longer.”

According to the latest update from apartment management, all but 184 units are in the “impacted zone.”

They can't safely access certain areas until OSHA finishes its investigation and releases the site.

The company says it doesn't have a definitive timeline on when the crane will be removed because a team of engineers and crane specialists is still forming a removal plan.

And cars in the parking garage can't be touched until the crane is removed because the entrance to the garage has been destroyed.

“It's a big crane, it's kind of hard to move. They have to make the process, the logistics of it. It's not surprising that it's still there,” Luis Perez, who lives nearby, added.

Apartment management previously sent an update saying cars and other items in the 184 unaffected units would start being removed last month, but that has yet to happen.

Management says a structural engineer has already certified the safety and integrity of the units outside the impacted zone, but they still need to bring in generators to restore power to those areas and inspect the freight elevator.

They hope to have a plan submitted to authorities by next week.

In the meantime, neighbors who know displaced residents who used to live there say patience is running out for some.

“Basically, they're just living on their friend’s couch. People are donating furniture to them, donating clothes, because they have nothing,” Castellanos said.

Though they've received some assistance from apartment management, other residents in unaffected units have said they still can’t file insurance claims on their property because it hasn’t been deemed a total loss, they just can’t get to their items.