Department of Buildings

The city's Department of Investigation and the New York District Attorney's office just announced the arrest of a high-ranking crane inspector for bribery and tampering with public records.

Defendant James Delayo, the acting chief inspector for cranes and derricks and a 26-year Buildings Department veteran, has been arrested for taking bribes in exchange for helping recertify cranes without the proper inspections; for certifying individuals as crane operators without their having taken the appropriate exames; and for, "giving a copy of the crane operator’s examination to a crane company operator in exchange for $3,000."

All of these bribes supplemented his annual salary of $74,000.

Mr. Delayo, a 60-year-old Bronx resident, will be arraigned this evening.  read more »

Incredible. Another crane has collapsed in Manhattan, according to media reports, killing at least one person and wreaking yet more havoc on the East Side.

"The crane, which was apparently being used for a construction project at 354 East 91st Street, on the northwest corner of the intersection, collapsed onto the north facade of the white-brick building at the southwest corner of 91st Street and First Avenue. The damage extends from the building’s top floor, about 20 stories up, to the second floor, just above a Duane Reade drug store."

The second crane collapse this year comes just days after the city announced it would no longer require Buildings Department inspectors to be on site during crane jumps, instead relying on a system of surprise inspections.

On March 15, a 22-story crane collapsed on East 51st Street, killing seven people and leading to the resignation of Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster.

Update 9:57 a.m.

This building, a condop development called the Azure, has received 17 complaints this year, seven of which pertained to the crane, according to the Department of Buildings Web site.  read more »

The city will conduct an “intensive, in-depth assessment” of high-risk construction in the city, the Department of Buildings announced Wednesday, one day after commissioner Patricia Lancaster resigned.

"This year, we have seen an increase in accidents and injuries related to high-risk construction activities," acting commissioner Robert LiMandri said in a statement, "and we must make sure that as construction activity in the City continues to increase, the Department’s ability to hold the construction industry to higher safety standards keeps pace."

The department will spend $4 million to bring in outside engineers and others to oversee the review.

Full release after the jump.  read more »

The city found safety violations on six tower cranes (large cranes attached to buildings), after searching all 29 tower cranes in use citywide, the Department of Buildings announced today. The six cranes, with another two registering administrative violations, were temporarily shut down until the errors were corrected.

Following last month’s fatal crane accident on East 51st Street, DOB did a sweep of all the tower cranes in the city, and is now looking at mobile cranes, of which there are 220.  read more »

An inspector from the Department of Buildings was arrested today following last weekend’s fatal crane collapse for falsifying an inspection, though city officials said his actions likely did not lead to the accident.

Edward Marquette was charged with falsifying business records, a felony, after he admitted he lied on paperwork and did not make a March 4 inspection of the crane, according to the city. However, the crane was inspected after March 4, including the day before the March 15 collapse, and in a statement, Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster said “it is unlikely that a March 4 inspection would have prevented this horrific accident.”  read more »

A seventh body was recovered at the site of Saturday's crane collapse, the AP reported this afternoon.

All of the casualties from the 19-story crane's collapse on Saturday were construction workers at the site, except for one woman visiting a friend in a nearby townhouse to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  read more »

The city is testing the waters for a new look to the boxy, dull-colored sidewalk scaffolding sheds that fill the streets of Manhattan. Currently, about 4,500 of these aesthetic gems are set up in the city.

Patricia Lancaster, the commissioner of the city’s Department of Buildings, today announced a series of scaffold measures including the planned test of a prototype design of a sidewalk shed—one built “to improve pedestrian safety, increase natural light on the sidewalk, and improve the streetscape around construction sites,” according a press release.

Ms. Lancaster also announced a 30-day crackdown on unsafe scaffolding, a move that comes after the unsteady scaffold-related death of a worker at a Brooklyn construction site last month.  read more »

Testifying before the City Council earlier today, Department of Buildings commissioner Patricia Lancaster called for new regulations on general contractors and concrete contractors, responding to the cacophony of criticism that followed a fatal accident at the Trump SoHo.

Her recommendations include making general contractors and concrete contractors register with the city in order to do business in the five boroughs, and requiring that concrete contracts have a safety manager for high-rise construction, according to prepared testimony.

Also of note: 2007 saw 12 fatalities and 128 injuries on construction sites, compared with 18 fatalities and 116 injuries in 2006.  read more »