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A collapsing floor injured two workers Monday at a midtown office building where falling exterior work killed a prominent architect in 2019. The accident at 729 Seventh Avenue happened just before 10 a.m. During active demolition work on the 18th floor, part of the floor collapsed, sending two workers dropping to the 17th floor. They were taken to area hospitals; their conditions were not immediately clear. — NBC New York
The address is well known as the site where, in December 2019, architect Erica Tishman was struck by a piece of falling debris that her family claims directly resulted from negligence on the part of the property developer and the Department of Buildings. Administrative code charges... View full entry
The white-striped crosswalk sits on top of a hump of asphalt. Pedestrians barely notice as they rush across, but drivers are in for a bumpy ride if they do not slow down. The crosswalk in northern Manhattan was raised four inches in the fall to try to slow traffic and make pedestrians more visible as they navigate a busy intersection where 26 people — including 14 pedestrians — have been injured in motor vehicle crashes in the past five years. — The New York Times
Following a surge in traffic deaths in New York, in which a total of 273 people, citywide, were killed in crashes last year, the highest since 2013, Mayor Eric Adams wants to raise hundreds of crosswalks across the city. With more people on the streets, occupying outdoor spaces opened up due to... View full entry
Ice believed to have fallen more than 1,400 feet from a Midtown condo crushed the roof and smashed the windshield of Deneice O’Connor’s car as she drove up Sixth Ave., the shaken motorist said Saturday. “It just crashed down on me. I immediately thought a body had fallen on my car,” O’Connor, 35, told the Daily News. — Daily News
The ice is believed to have fallen from the SHoP Architects-designed 111 W. 57th Street supertall, one of the world's thinnest skyscrapers and tallest residential buildings in the Western Hemisphere. It is a prominent fixture along “Billionaires’ Row”. Police have also reported that... View full entry
Construction work in New York — city and statewide — remains the most deadly profession in the country. A total of 41 laborers died on the job in New York state in 2020, a decrease from 2019. However, fewer workers climbed scaffolding and pounded nails during the pandemic, so the rate of deaths still rose. — Construction Dive
According to an analysis of data from the New York Department of Buildings, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) conducted by the labor group New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), workplace deaths in... View full entry
While experts say the technology and design standards exist to better protect people and buildings from tornadoes, attempts to incorporate those designs into building codes have repeatedly been blocked or curtailed by the building industry, according to public documents and people involved in efforts to tighten the model codes. — The New York Times
Resilient infrastructure in states like Kentucky and Tennessee that are increasingly falling into the crosshairs of deadly tornadoes as a likely result of climate change-produced atmospheric conditions and non-related weather patterns like La Niña is becoming more and more imperative, as... View full entry
A survey of construction industry professionals in the UK has found that uncontrolled value engineering and poor workmanship present the biggest risks to the built environment. The study was commissioned by the British Board of Agrément (BBA), a major UK body for issuing certificates for... View full entry
Late last month, however, the Pacific Northwest saw the temperature skyrocket and break multiple records. The thermometer soared to 115 in Portland and 108 in Seattle. The heatwave caused up to 100 deaths in Oregon [...]. The usual regional temperature in June is in the high 80s.
For outdoor construction work, the heat posed an unusual challenge in the region.
— Construction Drive
The potential for disruptions due to extreme weather comes as the industry was beginning to pull away from materials shortages caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Oregon has joined several other states in adopting protective labor laws. An updated OSHA protection rule is expected soon... View full entry
Architect Robert Rock is facing a Herculean task: Design a bridge that will allow mountain lions to cross safely over a stretch of the 101 Freeway that roars with the traffic of 300,000 vehicles each day. — LA Times
A pedestrian bridge for animals in the region has been proposed for several years. Advocates will now face an uphill climb to raise an additional $27 million for the projected $65 million price tag before August after previously securing $38 million thanks to a #SaveLACougars social media campaign... View full entry
The New York City Department of Buildings has shut down 322 construction sites across the city due to hazardous conditions in June 2021. The DOB issued full and partial stop-work orders to the affected sites, citing more than 1,129 violations for safety and non-compliance issues. In... View full entry
The construction industry, an engine that has helped power New York City’s tremendous growth in recent years, is slowly starting to reawaken, offering one of the first optimistic economic glimmers as the city struggles to recover.
And it also provides a glimpse of how the coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally changed the workplace in the nation’s largest city and the epicenter of the outbreak.
— The New York Times
For the New York Times, Matthew Haag reports on the recent reopening of several thousand NYC construction projects and how the ongoing COVID-19 crisis calls for new social distancing and hygiene measures on job sites: "Roughly 5,200 construction projects were operating again as of Tuesday, from... View full entry
After previous studies showed that patients in healthcare facilities were becoming ill due to dust generated by construction activity researchers from Washington State University and Clemson University asked 129 construction managers and field supervisors from the top healthcare contractors in the... View full entry
The study, commissioned by Austin Mayor Steve Adler, found that keeping the city’s jobsites open without any special safety precautions could triple the number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations in the general population — from 10,000 to 30,000 — and raise construction workers’ risk of hospitalization eightfold by the middle of August. — Construction Dive
According to Construction Dive, the study found that the risk of increased hospitalizations and worker illness can be significantly diminished through measures such as temperature screenings, use of personal protective equipment, tool disinfection, hand washing stations, and rotating shifts... View full entry
Computer vision paired with artificial intelligence is already in use on construction sites, analyzing photos and video of a site to spot safety hazards and identify possible construction errors. But an idea pitched from a construction contractor has spurred A.I. vendor Smartvid.io to add social distancing monitoring to its feature set. — Engineering News-Record
According to ENR, Smartvid.io, a company whose AI is already able to spot workers and PPE use from video and still images, received a client request to also monitor social distancing on construction jobsites in light of the COVID-19 crisis. Since the technology could already track people on... View full entry
California Governor Gavin Newsom has issued renewed guidance instructing that the state’s construction sites can remain open for the time being as long as social distancing guidelines are being followed. Politico reports that Newsom reiterated his intention to keep the state’s... View full entry
Demand for routine bridge inspections is expected to rise four times its current level to reach a market valuation of $6.3 billion by the end of 2029, according to research firm Fact.MR. A push for infrastructure modernization in the Asia-Pacific region the largest share of the market at 35%. — Construction Dive
According to Construction Dive, the need for more bridge inspections will be driven by a combination of aging infrastructure, exposure to damaging environmental conditions, and an increase in traffic volume, all of which speed up the deterioration of bridges. This is expected to raise... View full entry
