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Critics of Trump SoHo project call for shutdown

BY PERVAIZ SHALLWANI | Special to Newsday

8:54 PM EST, January 15, 2008

The day after a crane accident at the Trump SoHo complex killed one worker and injured three others, some city officials and neighborhood groups said the project should have been shut down completely after a spate of safety violations in recent months.

"When a building has a major violation, it has to be resolved quickly," said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, noting that the Building Department hearing on October crane safety violations is scheduled for next week.

"We close down restaurants for fruit fly violations quicker than we shut down potentially dangerous construction sites," Stringer said.

Building officials say that every hearing for previous violations related to the Trump SoHo project were scheduled within 90 days, as is the agency's general practice. The project has been shut down by the city four times since September, but never for more than nine days, according to city building records.

Monday's accident killed Yurly Vanchutsky of Brooklyn, who a neighbor said emigrated from the Ukraine almost 20 years ago. Vanchutsky fell 40 stories when the floor beneath him and three other workers buckled as they poured concrete from a crane.

"No matter what -- rain or shine -- he was going to work," said a neighbor, Muhammad Tambra, 52. "Monday through Friday, he was out at five o'clock in the morning."

The city halted work indefinitely and issued contractor Bovis Lend Lease four violations after the fall. Bovis and DiFama Concrete of Brooklyn had been issued 11 others since July 2007 in connection with the Donald Trump hotel-condominimum tower. Bovis was also the contractor for the demolition of the former Deutsche Bank Building when a fire broke out last August, killing two firefighters.

The violations include unsafe crane operation and failing to notify the city when a crane hit a neighboring building in October, as well as storing materials too close to the edge of the building on the 39th floor on Jan. 5.

Trump officials referred questions to Bovis. A spokeswoman for the contractor did not return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday, although the company issued a statement saying it intends to conduct its own investigation of the accident.

"They will not be allowed to go back to work until they've demonstrated to us what they're going to do to keep this site safe," Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster said yesterday outside the building. "Because even one tragedy is too many."

But a partial evacuation order of some floors of three surrounding buildings will be lifted once the contractor installs safety netting and scaffolding to catch any loose debris, Lindquist said.

The Trump SoHo project, first announced on his reality TV show "The Apprentice" in 2006, has been opposed by preservationists and neighborhood groups, which have complained the building was going up too fast and using unsafe construction practices.

"Trump is trying to turn SoHo into Las Vegas and Atlantic City," said Sean Sweeney, director of the SoHo Alliance.

One woman whose office looks out onto the construction site said people who work and live nearby have long worried the project is dangerous.

"Everything they do at this building isn't safe," said Flavia Vogt, 34, of Hempstead.

The city's largest contractors group, the Building Trades Employers' Association, announced yesterday that it will convene a meeting to discuss improving safety for general and concrete construction companies.

There was a 10 percent increase in construction-related injuries between 2006 and 2007, but construction-related deaths dropped from 18 to 12 during the period, according to the Buildings Department. Accidents on high-rise projects nearly doubled, however, from 23 in 2006 to 42 in 2007.

"Considering the magnitude of construction in the city, we don't have a particularly high rate of accidents," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at an unrelated news conference yesterday, "but one accident is one too many."

Staff writers Karla Schuster and Matthew Chayes contributed to this story, which was supplemented with an Associated Press report.