The Department of Buildings said it will grant Big Apple Testing an opportunity to discuss the rejection of its license renewal, following a ruling earlier this month by a New York State Supreme Court judge. New York Supreme Court Judge Alice Schlesinger ruled that the agency must grant the Whitestone, Queens-based firm a “face-to-face meeting” with a neutral representative who can determine whether the firm should get its license renewed. DOB officials said they previously denied the license because Big Apple Testing continued working after the license expired in September 2008. They also said the firm failed to provide a two-year review as required by its Cement and Concrete Reference Laboratory and for other reasons. [more]

Despite Testwell Laboratories’ claims that alleged fraudulent cement testing documents were the result of clerical mistakes, an investigator from Thatcher Associates said that he saw the safety tests purposefully eschewed at the new Yankee Stadium construction site. Investigator Jim Murphy said that he confronted a Testwell supervisor over the safety tests, and that the supervisor refused to do the tests on the grounds that he was experienced enough to avoid them. “He said he could tell [if the cement was safe] by looking,” Murphy said, according to the New York Post. “He told me he would just make [the test] up.” Testwell is currently standing trial, facing several allegations of fraudulent activity at construction sites throughout the city including at Yankee Stadium and the Freedom Tower.

The new Yankee Stadium, where Testwell allegedly falsified concrete testing documents

Opening arguments in the case against Testwell Laboratories, a concrete testing firm accused of falsifying project results, began today. The company, along with four of its top executives, stand accused of filing fake concrete safety reports on over 100 projects in the city, including the new Yankee Stadium and the Freedom Tower at ground zero. Company representatives, however, contend that inconsistencies in testing results are the result of inadvertent mistakes. [more]

In the wake of widespread allegations of fraud against some of the city’s largest concrete testing companies, New York City officials say they’re ramping up their oversight on concrete testing. Officials told the New York Times that the Department of Buildings will create a new concrete audit unit in its ranks and will install an on-site concrete testing laboratory. The hope is that the new measures will ease the process of retesting concrete in approximately 80 city buildings. An official announcement from the city is expected today.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office is continuing its massive 17-month investigation of concrete testing fraud in the city, this time targeting Casa Redimix Concrete. Casa, the subject of an August 6 search warrant, was banned from supplying concrete for the $612 million replacement of the Willis Avenue Bridge the next day, due to a Department of Transportation mandate. However, pending a hearing next month, the company could be allowed to continue work on the bridge, after a victory last Friday in the State Supreme Court. Several New York City concrete testing groups have been subject to scrutiny in recent months including one group, Testwell Laboratories, which tested concrete for over 60 major city buildings, including the Museum of Modern Art and a 40-story Times Square office building.

Concrete in nearly 60 New York City buildings still needs to be retested, more than a year after fraud allegations emerged against one of the city’s largest testing companies, Testwell Laboratories. The Museum of Modern Art and a 40-story office building in Times Square were among the buildings that needed retesting, according to the New York Times. The retesting process is vexing the city Department of Buildings in both scale and degree of difficulty. “There is no accepted standard to retest concrete on this scale, and we have been working with more than 50 engineers associated with the buildings named in the indictment to develop a protocol to ensure all of the tests were done properly,” said department spokesperson Tony Sclafani. The city could have even more to test soon — another concrete testing company, Stallone Testing Laboratories, was formally indicted on similar charges last month. [more]