NY Concrete Testing Lab Under Fire

Grand Jury Charges State’s Largest Firm with Falsifying Results and Overbilling Clients. Also, HVAC renovation in Times Square progresses.

New Requirements for Crane Operators

The New York City Department of Buildings has recently announced new licensing requirements for Class C Hoist Machine Operator licensees.

Mobile crane operators now must submit to a background investigation, have urban experience, and acquire national certification to be licensed, according to DOB.

“These new requirements will better ensure individuals have the necessary skills and knowledge to safely operate the most advanced mobile cranes available,” said DOB Commissioner Robert LiMandri. “Any type of crane is a complex piece of machinery that requires a unique set of skills, and these modernized tests accurately measure one's ability for the cranes being used today.”

The DOB now requires a licensed operator to have at least two years of experience within three years prior to application under the direct and continuing supervision of a licensed HMO in New York City or in another jurisdiction that regulates crane operators, according to DOB. At least one of the required years of experience must be in New York City or another “dense urban environment.”

Applicants must pass the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators’ written and practical exams specific to the equipment for which the Class C license is to be issued: C1 for wheel-mounted mobile cranes with boom length not exceeding 200 ft and a capacity of 50 tons or less; C2 for crane-mounted boom trucks with boom length not exceeding 200 ft and a capacity of 50 tons or less; and C3 for crane-mounted boom trucks with a boom length not exceeding 135 ft and a capacity of three tons or less, according to DOB.

Following the exams, applicants must undergo a criminal background check, demonstrate physical fitness and comply with a substance abuse policy.

Individuals who currently hold active Class C hoist machine operator licenses must meet the new requirements and obtain NCCCO certification by September 30, 2009 to retain their licenses.

Documentation indicating compliance with all requirements is now required. Failure to provide accurate and truthful information could result in rejection of a license application as well as possible criminal charges, said DOB. To ensure certification, DOB plans to randomly audit licensees and applicants.

The requirements overhaul stems from allegations that testing is sometimes compromised, as well as from the arrest of a crane inspector in June 2008.

Indictment Filed Against NY’s Biggest Concrete Testing Lab

A grand jury recently charged the biggest material testing laboratory in the New York City area and key employees, seven of them professional engineers, with systematically falsifying results and overbilling clients. The alleged crimes took place over the last five years and involved some of the areas biggest projects, including the new Yankee Stadium and the Freedom Tower at Ground Zero in Manhattan.

The grand jury and Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau charged that Testwell Group, based in Ossining, N.Y., failed to perform tests, falsified reports and double-billed clients for field work. The company also lacked certification for inspectors it said were certified, according to the charges.

With the indictment, prosecutors obtained a court order freezing the firm’s assets and the assets of the defendants. It isn’t clear if this essentially ends Testwell’s operations or if the company is still at work. Reached by phone, the company’s office manager declined to answer questions and the company’s sole owner and chief executive, V. Reddy Kancharla, could not be reached for comment. An attorney for Testwell, Martin Adelman, says that Testwell is “disappointed with the charges and will contest them vigorously and looks forward to the restoration of its image in the construction industry.”

The indictments come amid a larger effort to enforce safety at New York-area construction sites following two fatal crane accidents in Manhattan. In the crane probes, prosecutors charged a New York City buildings department inspector with falsifying tower crane inspection reports.

To what extent structures completed or under construction will have to be retested because of the Testwell allegations was not immediately clear.

Testwell Laboratories Inc., a key unit of Testwell Group, achieved a rank of 36 on New York Construction’s Top Specialty Contractors, with reported revenue of $21.5 million earned in the tri-state area in 2007.

The grand jury and Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau charged Testwell with enterprise corruption, the equivalent of a racketeering charge, because of the systematic nature of the alleged crimes. Essentially, the charges involve separate schemes involving mix design, field tests, compressive strength, steel inspection and certification. According to the charges, Testwell performed only six to eight “legitimate” mix design tests each year but instead completed “roughly 200-300 phony” design mix reports.

The investigation began when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the New York Yankees forwarded information about improper testing on the Freedom Tower and at the new Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. The district attorney conducted searches of Testwell’s offices in June and August.

At the new Yankee Stadium, according to the charges, Testwell employees entered density test results from the field on final reports even though the handwritten field test reports had not been entered. Air content report results were entered even though the field reports contained no information. The same pattern existed on other New York City projects, according to the charges.

A potentially more sensitive series of false reports involves the concrete for the Freedom Tower. From May 2006 until Sept. 2006, Testwell certified that the concrete reached or exceeded 12,000 psi of compressive strength. When the Port Authority tested the concrete, however, the concrete averaged around 10,000 psi. Later core tests showed some of the concrete had cured to only 9,000 psi, according to the prosecutors.

According to the prosecutors, officials of the Dormitory Authority of New York State turned up numerous discrepancies on steel inspection reports made by Testwell on a large college expansion project. Some steel sections were shown to have been inspected over and over while more than half of the project’s “welded pieces that Testwell certified as accurately inspected were in storage at the facility and had never been tested.”

Prosecutors listed Kancharla, Testwell’s owner, and six other employees as professional engineers. One of them is Vincent Barone, vice president in charge of engineering. Prosecutors claim that another engineer, Edward Porter, was in charge of preparing concrete mix design reports and that engineer Michael Sterlacci was “primarily employed . . . to sign and stamp documents for Testwell that required a professional engineer’s seal.”

Manhattan Hotel Undergoes HVAC Renovation

The Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers in Times Square is in the midst of a major building systems renovation, which, when completed in the end of 2010, will earn the building a LEED Silver certification for existing buildings.

Extensive mechanical and electrical engineering work on the 53-story, 1754-room hotel began in March 2007 and the project involves designing the HVAC system, revising the electrical power in the guestrooms, upgrading HVAC controls and custom-designed area that will house the fan-coil unit, ductwork and piping in each guestroom.

Stantec is providing mechanical, electrical and architectural services for the renovations and RP Group in Brooklyn, New York is the general contractor.

The 1.12 million sq ft hotel had rooms conditioned by 2-pipe fan-coil units with electric heating elements and unit-mounted controls. The original cast-iron distribution piping mains and risers, and copper run-out piping to each fan-coil unit, for the hydronic chilled/heating hot water system were failing at a rate of 3 – 4 ruptures per year, which created a significant risk to ongoing operations, according to Stantec.

“They started to have a number of piping leaks, which in a 45-yr old building its time for them to start to age, so I was asked to design a system that would just replace the current one, but I realized this is a great opportunity to make a significant change,” said Randy Pool, managing principal of Stantec.

In the design, Stantec flipped the system structure from horizontal to vertical. “The hotel had bulkhead racetrack that runs room to room, which would be a great place locate a new piping system,” said Pool. “We kept the old system at the periphery of the room until the new system was in place and are now running the piping vertical instead of horizontal, which let us have 5600 fewer holes.”

In regard to efficiency, Stantec split the systems to better serve the top floors. “We designed a steam converter in the fourth subbasement that would feed guestroom floors 5-20 and a new heating plant on the roof that will feed down and serve floors 21-50,” explained Pool. “It gave us a lot of design options. We have shorter piping, less pump energy because we are pumping from roof down, and we don’t experience the pressure you normally see in high rise buildings.”

The project also opted for copper piping with a mechanical joint so it could be used in the guest rooms without any soldering. “The beauty of that is even thought he copper piping is more expensive it’s easier to install and has a longer life,” said Pool. When the project is completed, 26 mi of piping will have been utilized in the hotel.

Controls for the HVAC system were also upgraded and the thermostats have an occupancy sensor and door switch logic so that units will turn themselves off if there is no one in the room.

The biggest challenge, explained Pool, was “designing a system that can seamlessly integrate with as minimal guest disturbance and business interruption as possible.” Aesthetics and construction phasing were considered to minimize the impact. “Because the Sheraton has such high occupancy year around, we only are able to take one floor out of service at a time, so it is basically a 46-phase project,” said Pool.

Once the project is complete, the Sheraton will be the largest LEED EB-O&M hotel in the United States, said Stantec.

West Street Promenade Progresses

Work on West Street Promenade in Manhattan is heading toward its next phase of construction to begin early this year: the removal of the temporary Vesey Street bridge.

The $189 million project, launched by the New York State Department of Transportation, involves extending the design of Promenade South to the area between West Thames and Chambers Street as well as restoring West Street to eight traffic lanes, as it was before September 11, 2001. The road grade will be raised approximately six ft between Liberty and Vesey Streets, to match the higher elevation of the World Trade Center.

Open pedestrian plazas and green spaces are also included in the project, as well as new tree-lined promenades along West Street’s median. To enhance pedestrian safety, work also includes modifying the Liberty and Rector Street bridges. In Battery Park City, the park located between West Thames and Albany Streets will be renovated, providing more room for community gardens and a basketball court.

NYSDOT is working closely with the Port Authority and the WTC Memorial Foundation to build the “new” West Street which feature an underground pedestrian concourse connected to the WTC Transportation Hub.

Other enhancements include updating underground utilities and other infrastructure, installing new roadway and sidewalk pavement. NYSDOT also will modify the approach to the West Street Underpass that links to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, making the tube reversible to accommodate rush-hour traffic.

A Vehicular Security Center will also be construction at the WTC’s southwest corner.

Utility work and roadway reconstruction began on Vesey Street on August 2008 and continued through November. Currently, construction is active on West Street outside the World Financial Center, and work is almost complete at the intersection of West and Albany Streets.

The project began in June 2007 and official completion is scheduled for the end of 2009.

Work Begins on Light Rail Extension Project

Construction recently began on the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail project, as teams broke ground on the new 8th Street station in Bayonne, New Jersey.

“When the new light rail segment is completed, our downtown residents will be able to have easier commutes to work, school, and shopping,” said Bayonne Mayor Terrence Malloy.“Our community is looking forward to having an attractive, new light rail facility that will remind longtime residents of the old 8th Street Station.”

The $58.4 million contract was awarded to George Harms Construction, Inc. of Howell, N.J., in April 2008. The project involve the extension of the light rail line one mile from the southern terminus at 22nd Street, design and construction of foundations, viaduct structure, track work, intersection improvements, a new station building, landscaping, lighting and general customer amenities.

“Hudson-Bergen Light Rail continues to serve as a model for transit agencies across the nation,” said New Jersey Transportation Commissioner and NJ Transit Board Chairman Kris Kolluri. “The line continues to drive economic growth, transit-friendly development and—most important—connect residents with jobs, education and recreational activities.”

From the elevated 22nd Street Station, the light rail tracks will be extended south, running adjacent to the existing Conrail right-of-way along Avenue E, according to NJ Transit. A viaduct will carry light rail vehicles over local streets to an elevated platform at the new 8th Street Station, which will feature an elevator and stairs between street and platform levels.

“With Hudson-Bergen Light Rail ridership on a typical weekday up more than 13 percent this year over last, customers are clearly taking advantage of this convenient and affordable transportation option,” said NJ Transit Executive Director Richard Sarles. “We are pleased to expand the system and connect new riders to NJ Transit rail services, trans-Hudson ferries, PATH trains and park-and-ride facilities.”

The project is expected to be completed in 2010 and will be the 24th Hudson-Bergen Light Rail station on the line.

SVA Project Wraps up this Month

Construction on the School of Visual Arts Cultural Center in Manhattan is on schedule for completion at the end of this month, according to construction manager, Aragon Construction of New York.

The project, designed by Laurence G. Jones Architects of New York, includes renovating a 25,000-sq-ft, three-story structure to construct a center with movie theater capabilities. SVA will host film screenings, lectures and cultural programs that support the educational mission of the college.

Construction on the School of Visual Arts Cultural Center, a 25,000-sq-ft, three-story structure in Manhattan, is on schedule for completion at the end of this month. Rendering by Milton Glaser Inc.

In addition, the existing basement will be renovated and the mechanical systems will be upgraded, along with fire alarms and electrical services. New screens and draperies, an updated audio system and expanded stages are also being installed.

“The existing theater lobby has been demolished, opening up a dramatic new entry space,” says Laurence Jones, project architect. A new lobby, designed by acting chairman Milton Glaser, will replace it. The ceiling of lobby will be a raw concrete waffle slab from original structure highlighted by a light spray paint finish, which will highlight original texture/character of concrete, according to Aragon.

“For years, we were looking for a facility where SVA could stage public events in style, and serve as a store window for the College’s various departments,” said Gene Stavis, Director of the Visual Arts Theater. “We hope to make this venue easily accessible to everyone, whether young or old, a long-time neighborhood resident or a tourist. Among other offerings, we will be showing different films that will be available for viewing by the general public.”

As for capacity, the small theater will seat approximately 280 people while the large theater will hold 480. SVA is looking to offer programming throughout the day, as frequently as seven days a week, said Stavis.

The facade of the building, also designed by Milton Glaser, will be a changing set of graphic and sculpture art related to various aspects of the College’s curriculum such as painting, photography, film, animation, computer art, art history. Current plans call for the display to be changed approximately four times a year.

The site previously housed Clearview Chelsea West Cinemas at 333 West 23rd Street and the project, funded by SVA, involves a 25-year lease for the space.

“We’re very excited about this opportunity, and look forward to creating an up-to-date and technologically advanced facility that will be a nexus of art, teaching and culture in New York,” said Alex Getelman, president and founder of Aragon Construction.

Major Park Design Still Under Microscope

In June 2008, five finalists were chosen to participate in a design competition for the creation of the Hudson Park and Boulevard and a streetscape plan for the Hudson Yards area on Manhattan’s West Side.

A selection committee comprised of the Hudson Yards Development Corporation, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, the New York City Department of Design and Construction, the New York City Department of Transportation, and the New York City Department of City Planning selected the five teams from a field of 18 firms that responded to a request for proposals. The five teams selected were: Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd. (Kathryn Gustafson) and Allied Works (Brad Cloepfil), Hargreaves Associates (George Hargreaves) and TEN Arquitectos (Enrique Norton), Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. Landscape Architects (Michael Van Valkenburgh) and Toshiko Mori Architect (Toshiko Mori), West 8 (Adriaan Geuze) and Mathews Nielsen (Kim Mathews and Signe Nielsen), and Work Arquitecture Company (Dan Wood and Amale Andraos) and Balmori Associates (Diana Balmori).

However, a final decision was originally planned for October 2008, but the winners have yet to bee selected. A spokesperson for the Hudson Park competition said the selection is currently delayed but they are expecting it to move forward shortly.

The Hudson Park and Boulevard spans approximately four acres, and involves open space and an adjacent street that will be constructed between 10th and 11th avenues from West 33rd to West 42nd streets. The park and boulevard will be part of an approximately 20-acre open space system in the Hudson Yards district, including 12 acres on the MTA Rail Yards to the south of Hudson Park.

“The construction of Hudson Park and Boulevard will provide significant new open space in an area once developed for manufacturing and light industrial uses that now serves a booming residential community,” said Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe. “This expanse of green space along the west side of Manhattan furthers Mayor Bloomberg’s commitment to ensure that New Yorkers are no further than a short walk from a City park.”

After a design team has been selected, the project will be built in two phases: Phase 1 runs from West 33rd Street to West 36th Street, and is expected to be completed by 2013. Phase 2 extends from 36th Street to 42nd Street and will be constructed thereafter.

NJDOT Replacing Creek Bridge

The New Jersey Department of Transportation recently began a project to replace the Route 206 Assiscunk Creek Bridge in the townships of Springfield and Mansfield, Burlington County.

“The replacement of this Route 206 bridge is an investment in safety that exemplifies NJDOT’s annual commitment to improving the state's aging highway bridges and increasing motorist safety,” said New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine.

The $3.28 million project was awarded to Agate Construction Co. Inc. of Ocean View, N.J. in July 2008. They will replace the existing structurally deficient bridge with a new longer single-span structure. The new bridge will carry two 12’ travel lanes and 11’ shoulders in each direction on Route 206, according to NJDOT.

Also included in the project are new guide-rails and upgrades to the existing drainage system within the project limits.

The project is scheduled for completion in December 2009.

Senior Housing Project Planned for NJ

Del-Sano Contracting Corp. based in Union, N.J. has recently been selected as general contractor for St. Mary’s Senior Housing Project at 280 Washington Avenue in Dumont, New Jersey.

Domus Housing Corp. & Catholic Charities of The Archdiocese of Newark is developing a $10.4 million, low-income senior housing HUD 202 project—a program which helps to expand the supply of affordable housing with supportive services for the elderly to live independently but in an environment that provides support activities such as cleaning, cooking, transportation, etc, explained Angelo Del Russo, CEO of Del-Sano Contracting Corp.

Del-Sano Contracting Corp. based in Union, New Jersey recently received a $10.4 million contract for general contractor for St. Mary’s Senior Housing Project in Dumont, New Jersey. Courtesy of Steven Cohen, AIA.

“The Senior Housing project niche is especially gratifying to our company. We enjoy knowing that the senior population in most communities is being considered and provided comfortable living conditions based on need through the non-profit social ministries such as DOMUS and Catholic Community Services,” said Del Russo.

Designed by Steven S. Cohen Architect, PC, in Princeton, N.J., the project includes a 45,000-sq-ft, four-story building with 49 one-bedroom units. The first floor will include the entrance, reception, a conference room, a mechanical room, a community area with kitchen, mail room, and eight apartments. The second, third and fourth floors each have a laundry room and 14 apartments which are 540 sq ft and handicap-adaptable.

Each room will feature Energy Star fixtures and appliances, thermal bypass details to assist in the efficient utilization of utilities, as well as a senior nurse call button connected to a common area building entry system, according to Del Russo.

The building will be a block/plank structure, faced with brick, stucco and precast heads and sills, which will match the facade of the adjacent worship building, said DelRusso.

“To date, [we’ve seen] normal construction challenges, like site logistics, working in the radius of an active Church/school and at a very busy traffic intersection,” explained Del Russo. “The removal of a vacant convent made way for new site infrastructure to retain storm water and construct new utilities to accommodate current codes for fire service, storm water, sanitary, sewer, and domestic water.”

Construction began in October 2008 and the project is slated for completion in December 2009.