City Fines Company $110K For Riis Houses Crane Collapse

MANHATTAN, NY — The Department of Buildings halted crane work by a company embattled in two recent crane incidents — one of which led to the death of a construction worker in April.

The DOB announced Monday it halted United Crane and Rigging's crane work at 22 sites citywide nearly two weeks after a crane partially collapsed at a public housing building on FDR Drive, forcing more than 100 families to evacuate in late July.

The DOB issued $110,000 in fines for the July 30 incident at New York City Housing Authority's Jacob Riis Houses.

The company also supervised crane work in April, in which a counterweight crushed 34-year-old construction worker Gregory Echevarria, of Brooklyn.

"Failure to comply with this Order may result in the Department taking such further action as it deems necessary, including enforcement action for failure to comply with a Commissioner's Order," the head of the DOB's Cranes and Derricks Unit Ashraf Omran wrote to United's chief executive officer Kim Smith.

DOB demanded the company hire a laundry list of new construction professionals — such as a lift director and assembly and disassembly director — as well as an independent safety monitor to ensure work is up to code before the company could carry on with crane work, according to the letter released Monday.

DOB issued five violations for the collapse at Riis Houses — including failure to designate a qualified lift director, failure to notify DOB regarding work performed, inadequate safety measures, failure to safeguard the site, and failure to have proper construction documents on site.

The crane work at Riis Houses was a part of the NYCHA's Recovery and Resiliency work at the development to install power generators on the roof, NYCHA previously said. Riis Houses was allocated $130 million in Sandy-related work, NYCHA's project map shows.

DOB found that at Riis Houses, the crane's operator lifted a load of steel beams 700 pounds more than was permitted — causing the crane's boom to bend and partially collapse, according to DOB.

The collapse ripped off air conditioning units and banged up the exterior of the building, Fire Department officials said at the time.

No DOB violations have been issued in the Broome Street incident that killed Echevarria, since DOB's and other entities' investigations remain ongoing, DOB spokesperson Andrew Rudansky said.

DOB's actions come days after East Village and Lower East Side Councilmember Carlina Rivera urged the incoming NYCHA director Greg Russ to visit NYCHA complexes in her district — calling for an audit of recovery work funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The crane collapse was "the latest in a string of failures for an agency with an entrenched culture of mismanagement, documentation of wasted resource and a seeming disregard for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who live in public housing," she said in an August 9 letter, which the public housing authority said it is reviewing.

Rivera's office was reviewing DOB's actions Monday, her spokesperson Jeremy Unger said.

NYCHA spokesperson Chester Soria said the authority had prohibited United from operating on NYCHA property prior to DOB's announcement Monday. The individuals involved in the crane work are barred from future public housing crane activities until the DOB and Department of Investigation complete their investigations, he said.

The authority noted it evacuated the top two floors of the FDR Drive building before the July 30 work, per protocol, and has had 94 successful crane picks before the incident, Soria said.

United's chief executive officer Kim Smith, who DOB addressed its letter to, did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment. A woman who answered the phone at United declined to comment.

Here is a list of all sites where United's crane work has been halted:

• 765 FDR Drive, Manhattan
• 749 FDR Drive, Manhattan
• 90 Avenue D, Manhattan
• 108 Avenue D, Manhattan
• 171 Flushing Ave., Queens
• 412 E. 90th St., Manhattan
• 1780 Grand Concourse, Bronx
• 570 Broome St., Manhattan
• 28-07 Jackson Ave., Queens
• 255 E. Houston St., Manhattan
• 40 Tenth Ave., Manhattan
• 30 Warren St., Manhattan
• 817 Broadway, Manhattan
• 5 Columbus Circle, Manhattan
• 1014 Banner Ave., Brooklyn
• 210 W. 27th St., Manhattan
• 1815 Sterling Pl., Brooklyn
• 8 Nevins St., Brooklyn
• 328 E. 62nd St., Manhattan
• 71 N. Seventh St., Brooklyn
• 2802 C Victory Boulevard, Staten Island

This article has been updated with information from the New York City Housing Authority.