Can’t find the previous thread. Saw on the news this morning that the city inspector is under investigation for falsifying his report that he inspected the crane before it collapsed.
“Put your creed in your deed.” Emerson
“When asked if you can do something, tell’em “Why certainly I can”, then get busy and find a way to do it.” T. Roosevelt
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I was walking home from Midtown, close to where the crane collapsed and noticed another site that had a brace every 3 floors.
That inspector was jailed, at least that is what the nightly news said last night.....
He signed off on the installation of the crane but never "looked" at it!
“Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.”
Reagan....
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.
-Truman Capote
As troubling as that falsified inspection report was, in this case, it would not have mattered (the crane was moved).
The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.- Fyodor Dostoyevski
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/inspector-arrested-over-ny-crane-collapse/2008/03/21/1205602627923.html
All sorts of stuff will indeed come out until the final report of the incident or investigation is complete.
“Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.” Reagan....
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. -Truman Capote
Not moved....
As best I can find out, it was being jumped up. Once the cane is jumped up another level, it needs another brace to the building. In the process of attaching the next collar tie (I'm sure there is a more technical term, but I don't know it), the tie came loose from it's rigging, fell on the next lower tie, sheared it, and the two ties together slid down to the next lower tie, while the tower fell away from the building.
So, unless the tower didn't have enough braces to begin with (and from what I can gather that spec. is provided by a project engineer), so really that means it wasn't braced to the engineers specification(s) and the inspector didn't see that, then he really isn't liable.
Which doesn't mean he's not in deep voodoo.If someone here has more knowledge than I do re mid-rise cranes, I'm curious as to when and why a free standing tower crane is used, as opposed to one anchored to the building.The other interesting thing I came across, the developer is a NYC policeman, with a few other small projects under his belt. Have to think there's some interesting back story there....TGNY, any comment?
I once did a re-roof of an old three story brownstone on the upper West Side of Manhattan.
The job fell in my lap so I called a friend from Joisey who was in the roofing biz and had done a lot of old commercial buildings.
Joe was more familiar with how small jobs were done in the city than I was, how to grease the wheels and avoid problems. We didn't have NYC licenses or a permit for the job but the building was a church so we figured we'd tell the BI that we were volunteers...if he caught us.
It was a parapet walled low pitched roof, enough pitch that a cold roof would work fine. According to Joe, that made it feasible. A hot tar kettle on the street would've been too much.
We decided that we would come into the city early, hang a rope-pulley hoist off the parapet and get the materials on the roof, out of sight, before the BI was likely to be out looking for pidgeons...like us.
The plan was to get the materials and the crew on the roof, trucks moved a few blocks away, by 9AM.
Un-for-tun-ate-ly the early AM traffic was worse than usual so we were late getting started. The BI found us, just after 9AM, running materials up the rope hoist. More bad luck, Joe had just walked down to the corner to make a phone call.
Th BI was more subtle than I'd expected, working me for a bribe. Ignoring the NJ plates on the big stake body truck, he asked to see a rigger's license for the rope hoist. It was a very small item, among the many things for which he might've cited us but he knew that it would keep the rhetoric to a minimum.
I tried my little sob story about us being volunteers for the church but he went right back to his little code book about why we needed a rigger's license. At that point Joe returned from the corner deli with coffee for the crew. I quickly offered mine to the BI, introduced him to Joe and moved away, taking the box of coffe containers with me. The two of them turned and walked back toward the deli, thick as thieves.
I handed out the coffee, sending the last two up to the roof on the pulley rope in an empty five gallon pail.
Joe returned a few minutes later, told me what it had cost, and said we were paid up for the day. I was mildly outraged but had to laugh too. It was so typical of what I'd seen and heard about NYC.
When we came back the next day to finish, we rode in different trucks and cars than the previous day. I still chuckle at that little bit of subterfuge. Anyway, the BI didn't catch us again. We got paid and left Manhattan, back over the GW bridge...laughing.
Edited 3/22/2008 4:55 am by Hudson Valley Carpenter
You scofflaw!
True, one of my favorite avocations.
Thats odd............ never see you at the meetings!
Doug
You have to keep your dues paid up to attend meetings. I scoff at dues too.
Just as well shot for a full fledged hijack here!
I scoff at dues too.
related but not really so..........just made me think of this story.
When I moved down to TX in 03 there was an article in the paper about a bar that was a big deal in Austin back in the 70's, guys like Willie Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan, Joe Ely..........played there, this bar turned down Pink Floyd playing for free cause they had standards, those standards were you had to play the blues! Also famous for NO COVER at the door.
Wish I could find the article but ..... Anyhow the owners name was Knight, they had a 30 year reunion night where a lot of the old regulars were going to come back and play. They asked the old owner about coming down and making an appearance. He asked if there would be a cover charge, promoters of the event said yes, he declined on principle!
Sometimes you gotta stick to your guns! I guess that was the parallel?
Doug
Damned Yankee pro-motors.
This link takes you to a trove of articles on the crane accident. A retired firefighter was the developer. A $50 nylon strap that was holding the collar brace failed. I've seen many cranes that seem to only have a few brace points, but this week I've noticed a few with more than usual. Thing is there has been so many construction accidents, crane and/or scaffold failures in the past decade or so in NYC.http://topics.nytimes.com
Thanks for the link....think that's where I was looking earlier, guess I mis-remembered cop for fireman.
You keeping busy? I just came off a year in Boston, looks like I'll be on the bench until fall at the soonest.....
Was very busy up until yesterday, the project is on hold now. Have a few irons in the fire though, some interesting international prospects.
Suspect there are a lot of things on hold, or soon to go there. Hope it doesn't last too long. I can ride a while on what the DW managed to put away from the last job, but hate to see it go that way......instead of to a new driveway, or a few other deferred household jobs.....
I hear you, but if you could handle a move overseas for awhile there is a ton of work in many other corners of the world. I think this recession is going to really put a hamper on real estate development. (And yes, it is Bush's fault ;-)
It was a stretch being in Boston, away from DW & 2 kids, ages 8 & 9, for a year, as opposed to the more usual 2-4 month stints I had been doing (and this was on top of a pretty busy 2006. So, Dubai or, God forbid, Baghdad are probably out of the question (although I did meet some IT PM guys who'd been doing a big project in Acapulco....)The Prez had plenty of help-and has plenty of blame, too. Remember the "go to the mall & shop" sound-bite? Overall, IMHO it's pretty much a Walt Kelly moment. Quote Pogo, we have met the enemy and he is us. Even those huge salaries & bonus's the wizards on Wall Street get are seen as just another part of the American Dream by a whole lot of our fellow citizens.....
Where is home base for you, PA? I too am weighing up the logisitics of being away from DW and an 8 year old for an extended time. I almost moved to the Bahamas which is practically commuting distance from NYC. Dubai or Shanghai will be a little bit of a stretch though. I am very intrigued with Asia right now, less so the ME. Lots of stuff going on in Vietnam too. Where will you land next?
Home base is Buffalo, where the DW's people are. Never know where I'll land next, till I get there. Typically, somewhere in the S.E. US, if possible-keeps the air time manageable on the weekend trips home (every third paid-more often if I buy, and the job pace allows the time).Last job was a pretty good sized debacle. Switched contractors early on (Turner came back looking for 5M added), second outfit was a pretty good tenant build out firm, but not so hot on new build. They went belly-up, we fronted them another 5M to keep them going, and then terminated THEM less than a month later, brought in a construction management co. that was pretty good, but also out of their comfort zone (more a claims & management group than a G.C.) Architect was not so good, and the ID firm was from California, with pretensions & budget to match. Site was mixed jurisdiction between the city/state and a redevelopment agency. The RDA had authority for fire code, but the city would be first responders-each wanted a different color on the hydrants, and that was just the beginning of the fun.The accountants had to monetize the work -to-complete and likely punch list prior to the end of last year, and my corporation was able to complete the sale to a well know real estate group before the year-end. But we booked a loss on the project. It was a learning experience in a lot of ways for me. I'm just a pretty good trim carp. who lucked into doing site supervision for the corp. when my wife worked for them. I'm pretty low on the totem pole, so I'm hoping as little as possible of the dirt washes off on me, and when things pick up again I'll still be on the short list. I was working with a really impressive PM (he was full time on this project-usually I only see the PM a few times on a given job). He had/has a lot more at stake, being a full-time guy, and I really hope he doesn't get blamed. I can't imagine doing Dubai or Shanghai, myself, but I have a feeling by later this year I'll take what-ever's available.....hope you find something that lets you stay near your family.
The crane was being jumped by laborers and not Local 40 Ironworkers who NEVER would have rigged the collar with nylon, only steel slings.
Well, I would never say never....
Seems a bit of a stretch, given Union power in NYC. Got a source for that fact?
I had one of the supers in Boston describe the laborers as "the -insert the N-word here-of the construction industry".....charming guy. We were in Local233 side of town, the Irish side, and they were a huge PITA, but they certainly weren't the only knuckle-heads on the job, not by a long sight. I saw plenty of stupidity from other trades as well, and there's nothing wrong with Nylon slings, if they are the right ones.
it sounds like it was improper rigging, and the fault of the rigging crew if the wrong slings were used if the accident did indeed happen when the crane was being jumped up.
typically the crane will be jumped several times so after the first time there should be no mystery. it could well be that they forgot to use softeners with nylon slings. hard corners can cut otherwise strong enough nylon rigging,
however again typically for something that is going to be moved like that there will be dedicated picking points that should be attached with shackles. if a shackle is what the newspaper article was calling a "collar", then it may have been the wrong weight rating/size.
no excuse for an accident like that, someone should be hung!
The "collar" referred to the steel frame the captures the tower at the strut. Quite right about the picking points & shackles, though.