26.03.2008

Three cranes fail New York inspection

Three of the nine tower cranes re-examined in the wake of the deadly crane collapse in Manhattan ealier this month have failed the inspection and have been shut down.

According to the Department of Buildings, a crane at the Trump SoHo condo hotel on Spring Street was shut down after inspectors found small cracks in a slab attaching the crane to the building. The crane's beacon light was also not working.

Another crane at the new Goldman Sachs headquarters on Murray Street was shut down because the name of the person operating the crane was different from the name on the permit.

Both sites have had serious accidents in the past few months.
In January, a worker at the Trump SoHo was killed after falling while pouring concrete. And in December, an architect was severely injured after tons of steel fell from a crane at the Goldman Sachs site.

A third crane on Washington Street near the World Trade Center site was shut down because an I-beam was missing a pin.

All sites have been issued stop-work orders.

The Buildings Department yesterday changed regulations to require a building inspector to be present any time a tower crane is raised or lowered.

The move comes more than a week after the crane collapse on Manhattan's east side that left seven people dead and destroyed a four-story townhouse.

The Department of Buildings expects to finish re-inspecting all tower cranes in the city by April 15th.