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Two tower cranes shut down for safety violations

BY KARLA SCHUSTER | karla.schuster@newsday.com

March 27, 2008

Two tower cranes, including one at a SoHo project where a worker died in January, have been shut down for safety violations following a deadly crane collapse in Midtown earlier this month.

As part of an emergency safety sweep of 30 tower cranes citywide, the Buildings Department found violations at three of 12 cranes inspected as of Tuesday. All but one of the cranes inspected were in Manhattan. The agency expects its emergency tower crane inspections to be complete by April 15, said Buildings Department spokeswoman Kate Lindquist.

Once the tower crane inspections are complete, Lindquist said, the agency will review safety at another 220 cranes citywide -- a sweep scheduled to be finished by the end of May.

Stop-work orders were issued for two lower Manhattan cranes -- at 200 Murray St. on March 19 and 123 Washington St. on March 20. Work was halted at 246 Spring St. in SoHo, the site of the Trump hotel condominium project on March 20, according to city buildings officials.

The violation at the Washington Street site -- a missing pin from an I-beam at the base of the crane -- has since been corrected and work has resumed there, officials said. The other two sites remained shut down as of late yesterday afternoon.

The Buildings Department and its commissioner, Patricia Lancaster, have been under increasing pressure amid a spate of construction accidents, including the collapse of a crane at an East Side site two weeks ago that killed seven people.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said the emergency crane inspections are "a good first step" but said the city should consider forming a multiagency task force to improve communication among building, fire and police officials about problems at major construction sites.

Also yesterday, a Lindenhurst construction worker injured in the crane collapse filed a lawsuit against six companies involved in the project. John Della Porta, 43, was atop the 18-story crane and survived a fall to the ground, according to the suit filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

The suit claims the companies failed to provide safe equipment and a safe working environment. Reliance Construction Group, one of the companies sued, has said it subcontracted the work to different companies and was not in charge of the crane.

Della Porta's attorney, Bob Sullivan of Garden City, said Della Porta is conscious and recovering at Bellevue Hospital Center from broken bones in his neck, back, legs and shoulders.

Staff writer Reid J. Epstein contributed to this story.