Fubar

nyt-crane.jpg
Tina Fineberg for the New York Times

Construction accidents are getting to be pretty routine these days (in case you missed it, another day laborer died in an accident this week), but crikey, today’s accident is anything but routine. The picture above, from the Times, shows what was a four or five-story building. Until earlier today, the building housed a bar called Fu Bar. After a 20-story tall crane fell on it, its reduced to almost nothing. And in the process, at least four people are dead.

Expect lots of stop work orders, lots of fines, and probably a citywide shutdown of all cranes for an emergency inspection in the wake of this tragedy. But don’t hold your breath waiting for DOB to fix the underlying problem of lax construction supervision.

UPDATE (21:00): So far, no word on survivors inside the building. Also nothing on how people are homeless tonight, but as many as six building might have been affected. The Times has the construction site as 305 East 51st, but the jobs appear under 303 East 51st. The building that was demolished was a block to the south – according to the Post the crane itself flew over a tall building immediately south of the construction site, and landed on the building behind the tall building.

305 has 9 complaints, 303 has 39 complaints (1 open). Last week, one person called to complain about the crane, stating that it did not “appear to be braced to the building”, with the “upper whichis [sic] 100 ft up unsecured.” (According to the News, the complaint was filed by a retired contractor.) Two days later, an inspection revealed that the crane was erected according to filed plans. Also of note, a partial stop work order was issued for the project at 13:30 today, based on a damaged or missing safety net or guard rail. According to the papers, the crane collapse didn’t occur until 14:20.

The project under construction is a 43-story building designed by architect Garrett Gourlay.

The Times also says that the crane was recently inspected and that all permits were in place. Does that include a weekend variance? Its hard to tell, since DOB is still, circa 2008, unable to post weekend permits to its Building Information System (BIS). However, looking at the payment history for the project, it would appear that there was a permit for work last weekend, but not this weekend. (Caveat: This is a very inexact science; its entirely possible that the payments last week were for a permit this weekend, but there’s no way to tell from DOB’s vaunted “information” system.)

UPDATE (21:15): According to the City Room, DOB inspected the crane yesterday before granting a variance for operation of the crane today:

Mr. LiMandri said that Buildings Department inspectors had on Friday conducted an inspection of the crane before granting a variance permit for a crane operation that was to be performed today. No violations were cited as a result of that inspection, he said.

Again, there is no way to determine via DOB’s “information” system when weekend variances are issued. So, we’ll have to take DOB’s word for it.

Its Not a Zoning Change

Its also not news. Every developer in the City is rushing to get into the ground before the 421-a tax abatement (not zoning) changes go into effect.

Developers: DOB Too Aggressive

This is pretty rich. DOB finally takes an active role in the enforcement of construction safety, and the real estate industry immediately cries foul:

I do believe that the city is responding to a number of accidents — some terrible tragedies and other accidents where nobody got hurt. But why they believe shutting down that many jobs is going to correct the matter, well, you’ll have to ask them.

Maybe – just maybe – its because so many jobs were paying so little attention to DOB rules:

Mayor Bloomberg has been pushing the Department of Buildings to become less a liaison between the developers and the city and more an enforcement agency.

Construction Noise

Via the Post, Williamsburg/Greenpoint’s CB1 has the highest number of construction-related noise complaints in the city (698 complaints between July 2007 and January 2008). We’re also #3 when it comes to bar and nightclub-related noise complaints (1,072).

Our 4,876 total noise complaints are about half that in the #1 neighborhood, Washington Heights, and about on par with most of the other boards in the top 10 (which range from 4,078 in the Upper East Side to 5,046 on the Upper West Side).

DOB Takes Action

Obviously in hasty response to my recent posts, DOB has a series of reforms aimed at improving construction safety in New York City. Actually, the second half of that sentence is true – there’s even a press release. A lot of the press release covers initiatives that have been in place for some time, but some of it does propose new reforms. These include:

Deploy New Staff to Crack Down on Unsafe Construction. DOB will be adding 88 new staff lines to create 7 new special enforcement teams.

Make It Costly to Disobey Stop Work Orders. “If work continues in violation of a Stop Work Order, inspectors will issue violations carrying immediate civil penalties that must be paid before the Stop Work Order may be lifted.” [This one’s for you, 48 Box Street.]

Outline an Aggressive Legislative Agenda to Add Enforcement Tools. “In the next month, Buildings Commissioner Lancaster will outline an aggressive legislative agenda that will call for increased enforcement tools for the Department.”

Increase Safety with Handheld Computers for Inspectors. “…all inspectors will be provided with handheld computers that will allow inspection results and violations to be entered from the field and uploaded immediately to BISWeb for Buildings employees and the public to view in real time. With B-FIRST, the inspection process will be made more efficient and results more accurate, while eliminating delays in reporting crucial safety information at construction sites.”

Set New Standards for Architects and Engineers Who Professionally Certify. “With the New NYC Construction Codes, the Department will reform the professional certification system by establishing standards that licensed architects and engineers must meet and maintain to participate in the program.”

Stop Repeat Offenders from Filing Applications. “Recently-enacted legislation enables the Buildings Commissioner to refuse applications filed by architects or engineers who, after due process, are found to have filed false or fraudulent documents. By refusing applications, the Commissioner prevents the architect or engineer from doing business with the Buildings Department.” [If this means that architects and engineers will not be able to file any applications (as opposed to self-certified applications), it will be something new and improved. Of course it doesn’t address the issue of expeditors, who are not professionals.]

Make Architectural Plans Available Online via BISWeb. “By 2009, the Department will expand B-SCAN’s capabilities so that architectural plans will be scanned and provided online as well.” [Another big step forward, assuming the plans are available immediately – right now, plans seem to go into some deep limbo as soon as permits are issued, making public scrutiny (and challenge) near impossible.]

Enhance Reporting System to Focus on Safety Trends. “…the Department will develop a Compstat-like system to aggressively track safety trends.” [Another major step forward into the 21st century, though why this focuses on safety trends only, and not other complaint categories, is a bit baffling.]

According to Lancaster, all this means that for “the first time in the Department’s 150-year history, we are positioned to transform to a proactive enforcement model…” Which is a good thing, though it does acknowledge many of the main criticisms of DOB over the past few years.