Major Construction Reforms Expected To Be Unveiled
Wide-Ranging Changes Likely Following Second Deadly Crane Collapse
NEW YORK (CBS) ― Construction work resumed at all but five sites around the city today as official begin taking action following Friday's deadly crane collapse.
ReportingThe investigation into what happened could take months, but city officials hope to unveil a package of construction site reforms as early as this week.
The latest fatal crane collapse lit a fire under city officials, with the Buildings Department planning to announce wide-ranging changes to improve construction site safety by the end of the week.
"The average New York expects to be able to walk down the street and be safe," said Robert Limandri, the acting Buildings Commissioner.
CBS 2 learned that among the reforms will be intense evaluation of the maintenance records of all 45 tower cranes currently inspected just once a year by the city.
"Certainly this is a focus of mine which is to look at maintenance records handled by the crane owner and the people who handle the crane," said Limandri.
The recommendations grew out of a meeting Saturday with some 80 construction experts. Louis Coletti of the Building Trade Employers' Association was at the Saturday meeting and made several suggestions.
"We're taking a look at whether there should be periodic inspections rather than just waiting just one year on an annual inspection," he said.
"We believe you need to increase the level of technical understanding of the people inspecting. You can't expect a buildings inspector getting paid $45,000 a year to go out and have the technical experience on a couple million dollar piece of equipment."
This comes as the district attorney's rackets square, the Department of Investigations and the Buildings Department is mounting a full-course criminal probe to determine what caused the crane to collapse and point blame if there is any.
"Our forensic engineers are collecting the debris to a secure location and we're going to thoroughly analyze all of the crane pieces," said Limandri.
What about the actions of the inspectors, the crane company owner, construction workers, and the paper trail of the specific Kodiak crane that crashed?
"We're looking at all these angles. Certainly protecting the construction industry and making it safe is critical to the city's economic future," said Limandri.
The industry contributed some $2 billion in taxes to the city and state. It employs about 128,000 people and creates thousands of ancillary jobs.
