Dec 15, 2007 10:21 pm US/Eastern
Builder Defends Safety Record After Crane Accident
NEW YORK (AP) ―
An undetected weakness may have caused a crane's nylon sling to rupture abruptly and drop seven tons of steel onto a construction trailer across from ground zero, the builder's spokesman said.
The accident Friday hurt an architect working in the trailer and builder Tishman Construction Corp. cited for four violations. The contractor leasing the crane was also cited with unsafe hoisting operations, and the city Buildings Department issued a stop-work order for crane operations at the site.
Tishman spokesman Richard Kielar said the firm's safety record on the project—a new corporate headquarters for investment banking giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc.—was "excellent by industry standards."
The crane's sling snapped and dropped its load of 25- to 30-foot-long galvanized steel studs while lifting them to the building's 13th floor, Kielar said. The studs were being used to support shaft walls at the building's core.
Kielar said a "material failure that ... could not have been foreseen" may have caused the accident.
The sling was carrying a 14,000-pound load and is designed to carry 19,000 pounds, the Buildings Department said.
Architect Robert Woo was hospitalized in stable condition after the accident, one of a string of recent, serious construction mishaps in the city. A window washer was killed and his brother critically injured when a scaffold plummeted more than 40 stories off an apartment building a week ago. A worker was killed the same day in the Bronx after heavy equipment pinned him while he was digging a hole to lay connecting pipe to a city water main, officials said.
On Saturday, workers cleaned up debris from the accident area, Kielar said. Work not involving the crane was to resume at the site on Monday.
The $2 billion Goldman Sachs tower is rising just across the street from the signature Freedom Tower being built to replace the World Trade Center. The investment bank's building was considered a crucial anchor for the redevelopment of downtown Manhattan after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
After agreeing to become the first major firm to relocate its world headquarters near the site, Goldman Sachs changed its mind, saying it had security concerns about a tunnel that was to be built at ground zero, facing the bank's building.
In 2005, state and city officials agreed to pay Goldman Sachs $1.65 billion in tax-exempt Liberty Bonds and offered millions of dollars in other incentives for the firm's commitment to move downtown. Politicians later said they would never again offer as lucrative a deal for companies seeking to move downtown, but they said the Goldman Sachs agreement was warranted because the company inspired confidence in the area.
The planned tower is expected to house 9,000 of the company's employees when it opens in 2009.
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