This year’s rash of construction-related deaths has placed intense scrutiny on New York City’s Department of Buildings — the agency charged with ensuring that construction sites are safe and buildings are structurally sound — to promulgate reforms.
With scores of construction sites across the city, that job has become increasingly difficult. Accidents on construction sites
in the city have killed 17 people this year, bringing the total to 148 deaths since 2002. Nine deaths occurred when cranes collapsed in separate incidents in mid-March and
late May.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor and recent reports, the majority of workers killed since 2002 have been undocumented workers, mostly foreign non-English speakers and non-union members. Half of the deaths were caused by falls hastened by improper use of safety gear, sometimes by forgoing it altogether. Five deaths this year occurred after workers fell from buildings.
Immediately following the disastrous week in late May when a crane collapsed on East 91st Street, killing two people, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Robert LiMandri, acting buildings commissioner, announced proposals aimed at preventing future fatalities.
On June 4, the DOB said it would add an additional 56 inspectors to the department, bringing the total number of buildings inspectors to 461 from 277 in January of 2002.
Bloomberg, who attributed many of the deaths to “tragically reckless behavior,” proposed new legislation allowing the department greater oversight and enforcement.
“The bills will provide the department with the necessary powers to ensure
that contractors are held accountable for their work,” LiMandri said. “Buildings inspectors cannot be on every job site at
every moment of the day, and so we
must work together to create strong incentives for contractors to make safety their No. 1 priority.”
If those laws are enacted, the DOB will take a more active role in determining management style and workforce qualifications on construction sites, aspects of building now largely left up to the individual contractor.
As Richard Mendelson, a city director for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said, “At non-union sites, [often] there’s no one there besides the workers; the boss just drops them off.”
Mendelson agreed that better on-site management is critical, since most accidents are due to “work practice and operations, not design.”
Also, under the proposed laws, contractors would hold safety orientation programs and regular safety meetings to review
operating procedures during crane or concrete operations.
Mayor Bloomberg said these meetings, along with confirmation that the procedures reviewed were actually followed, would “reduce the chances of an accident when there is a breakdown in communication at the site.”
Contractors would also hire a licensed “Concrete Site Safety Manager,” who could be fined for violations. Industry experts estimated this additional employee would earn between $75,000 and $100,000 a year.
Workers performing rigging operations would have to certify that they’ve completed a 30-hour training course. Every three years, they would have to pass an eight-hour refresher course.
And nylon slings, identified as the cause of two deadly incidents this year, would also be largely prohibited.
“We did an internal assessment of the 51st Street crane accident in particular,” said Lou Coletti, president of Building Trades Employers’ Association of New York, referring to the crane that collapsed in March after a nylon strap broke, killing seven people. “I think the industry felt that there wasn’t a regulatory requirement that established a need to have that training.”
Mendelson agreed, noting that numerous construction jobs involving heavy equipment don’t require certification.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said fines would “ratchet up” after repeated violations. And a project safety monitor, hired by the city, would supervise construction sites with repeat offenses, an expense the contractor would ultimately reimburse.
The DOB would also track the record of general contractors, as well as demolition and concrete subcontractors, across job sites, as opposed to the current site-by-site basis.
Because violations would be monitored citywide, Quinn said careless contractors would have a greater chance of losing their right to do business.
Reaction within the industry to these proposed solutions has been mixed. Some dissenters said more focus should be placed on the department itself.
Coletti said the proposed reforms would prevent some accidents “with small contractors [who] do not invest money in training either their project management personnel or their workers,” but he said the industry would never be fatality-free.
Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, acknowledged that with increased demand on the industry, “we’re reaching into a workforce that is perhaps not as experienced,” but said cutting corners on safety is in nobody’s best interest.
“When there’s an accident, regardless, it means that work stops, it means that insurance premiums go up and it means that the cost of the project goes up,” said Spinola.
Yet other industry professionals wondered if some reforms would actually increase accidents by further stalling construction, which ultimately prompts workers to work faster and for longer hours to make up for lost time.
For instance, a high-level source at one of the city’s largest construction firms said developers often ask his crews to work overtime after a stop-work order is lifted.
“It’s hard to recoup, and we certainly try to recoup by going on overtime,” sometimes putting in 60 or more hours a week for months at a time, he said.
The New York Post recently reported the DOB “issued nearly 29,000 permits for nighttime and weekend work between January and April — twice the number given out over the same period in 2007.”
Another source, who is not permitted to speak on behalf of his company, said the DOB should step up site monitoring and immediately impose compliance, rather than lengthy work stoppages.
While the reforms would require contractors who receive “Immediately Hazardous” safety violations to be in compliance within 24 hours, the reforms don’t
address the typical work stoppage or when it could recommence.
The intent of the proposed reforms, sources said, is to try to create a culture of accountability. The regulations would require the state to be notified if architects or engineers who have been subjected to disciplinary action are slated to work on sites. Companies will also be required to submit annual reports on accidents.
Still, inherent in the extensive documentation contractors would submit — to verify meetings were held, equipment checked and protocols followed — may be the creation of another bulky bureaucracy.
While Spinola acknowledged the proposed rules would lead to a longer pre-construction phase, he said the checks and balances are worth it. He said that eventually, as kinks in the system are worked out, the process would become more streamlined.