DOB Unveils New High-Risk Construction Measures

By Jack Buehrer and Tudor Van Hampton
February 10, 2009

After six months and nearly $4 million, New York City’s Dept. of Buildings on Feb. 3 recommended 41 measures to increase regulations for crane, concrete and excavation work. But industry observers say the standards, if implemented, would create more problems than they would solve.

The NYC Department of Buildings announced 41 recommendations they hope will increase safety and avoid catastrophes like the deadly crane collapse that killed two construction workers last year.

The city assembled a team of more than 30 engineers, including experts from Skokie, Ill.-based forensic consultant CTL Group. The measures chiefly focus on crane and hoisting operations, as more than half of the line items fall under that category. At the top is a need “to track critical components of tower cranes,” a measure that area crane owners casually refer to as “Cranefax,” referring to a similar service for passenger cars.

Coming less than a year after two fatal crane collapses killed nine people in Manhattan, the list is ambitious. “This all requires us to be an enforcer,” says Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri. “We expect some of [the recommendations] will be able to be up and running in three months.
Others will take longer.”

One that could happen soon is a requirement for cranes entering the city to be examined by inspectors qualified under U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards. “All we care about is that the cranes that arrive here are as safe as possible and when they go up that they’re put together and inspected by the most qualified people,” says LiMandri. “And we’d like to have that check and balance in our own jurisdiction.”

The most-debated measure ― the so-called “Cranefax” project ― is a longer-term goal, he allows. The industry has kicked around the idea of such a system, similar to CARFAX, for years. LiMandri says it would require a constant dialogue between original-equipment manufacturers, crane owners and DOB. “We would be on notice that a part had been repaired to OEM standards and is safe to go back to work,” he says. “We want to close all the gaps, and we have to start somewhere.”

Rob Weiss, vice president of Cranes Inc., says that tracking crane parts, while a good idea, is not possible because they are not serialized and they freely move across state lines. “When the lifeblood of the construction industry relies on cranes outside of your jurisdiction, you can’t track them,” he says. “If they want to enforce something like Cranefax inside the jurisdiction of New York, that’ll be great, but it will create problems.”
   
Another moving target, LiMandri adds, is the establishment of safety requirements for older cranes. The study looked at such regulations around the globe. In Australia, cranes must be torn down and rebuilt after 10 years. In Singapore, the public is less trusting of industry, as cranes must be junked after they are 15-20 years old. “Somewhere on that continuum there is the ability to have cranes that are older and are safe enough for use, but to also encourage newer cranes and technology,” LiMandri says.

Though industry insiders applaud LiMandri for the effort, they warn that NYC may supersede national standards, including a pending OSHA regulation for cranes and derricks whose pubic hearing is set in Washington, D.C., on March 17. NYC may go “far beyond what OSHA would require, and in some cases, you could argue that there is a conflict,” says Bill Shuzman, executive director of the local Allied Building Metal Industries. “But the bigger problem is that we have broad-brush recommendations, and the devil is going to be in the details.”

Weiss gives DOB credit, though, for proposing to relax its requirement to “prototype” new models. “What New York City is contemplating is the concept of an approved vendor,” he says. “It’s still odd, because everything falls under the discretion of the Commissioner, but it could be a step in the right direction.”

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