Construction Safety Reaches Crisis in New York City

A rash of accidents has killed 13 people in the last five months at construction sites across New York City, leaving builders and safety officials on edge as they look for ways to improve safety conditions for workers and bystanders.

Problems have plagued the city’s construction industry for months. The collapse in March of a Manhattan crane scaffolding — which claimed the lives of seven — was the highest profile in a string of fatal and non-fatal construction accidents in 2008 that began in January when a construction worker fell 40 stories to his death at a Donald Trump-owned tower.

The 13 construction deaths so far this year have already eclipsed the 12 deaths seen at city construction sites in all of 2007.

City officials are now scrambling. Acting Commissioner of the Department of Buildings Robert LiMandri has ordered a safety review in which 20 engineering experts will analyze the pouring of concrete at high-rise construction sites, crane operations and excavations. The experts are to recommend changes that can be put into effect immediately, rather than wait for a report.

There’s no shortage of voices clamoring for changes. At least 12 proposals have been given to the City Council. They range from independent monitoring of buildings under construction, to registration of builders, to a safety hotline where unsafe conditions could be reported. Real estate interests and construction unions in the city are suggesting the city scrap its buildings department and replace it with a public corporation.

The crises across the city’s construction sites have mirrored a crisis of leadership within the Department of Buildings — the bureaucracy charged with overseeing code enforcement at all construction sites within New York proper.

In late April, then-Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster resigned after being criticized by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. A week prior to her resignation, Lancaster acknowledged that the department mistakenly approved construction on the 43-story condominium where a crane collapsed in March. The building was not zoned for a height above 30 stories, she said. An inspector had found the crane to be safe a day before the collapse; another was arrested on charges of lying about inspecting the same crane.

Critics said the department has been a mess since the 1990s, when it created a “self-certification” system to streamline the permit process and drastically reduced its inspections staff. Lancaster raised the number of inspectors and implemented numerous reforms but couldn’t stop the deadly construction accidents.

Among the recent string of fatal construction accidents in New York City:

• May 6: A construction worker fell 30 feet to his death while working on scaffold at the Triborough Bridge in Queens.
• April 14: Kevin Kelly, 25, fell 10 stories to his death while installing windows at a condominium tower on East 67th Street. Officials blamed a failed safety strap system.
• March 12: A construction worker died when part of a wall from a next-door building collapsed on him. The unnamed construction worker had been working on a commercial building on 791 Glenmore Avenue in East New York.
• March 8: Seven people were killed when a 200-foot crane collapsed at another East Side condominium project; the collapse destroyed a nearby townhouse.
• January 30: Construction worker Jose Palacios, 42, plummeted 12 stories to his death when the scaffold he was working on at a Brooklyn apartment building collapsed.
• January 14: Worker Yuriy Vanchytskyy, fell 42 stories to his death while pouring concrete at the under-construction Trump SoHo, a hotel and condominium complex in Manhattan.