Serious construction accident in NYC

[Manedwolf]

Ouch. At least one possible fatality, and part of a floor is in part of another floor. Trump SoHo that was under construction. Whatever happened, a whole lot of junk and wet concrete fell out of the building.

http://gothamist.com/2008/01/14/breaking_collap.php

Update 1: Now we're hearing that part of the 42nd floor collapsed into the 41st floor. Reader renter999 commented, "I'm in the building next door, and when the collapse occurred a whole load of debris and wet cement fell partly on my building and partly on the ground below. I could see a worker swept off the roof into the safety net attached to the building." As you can see from the photographs immediately above, in the right corner of the building, it looks like something is missing with the second photograph shows construction workers.

I watch that crane all day long and happened to be looking right at it when the accident happened. It was carrying a hopper full of wet cement up to the top floor to presumably be poured into plywood molds for the columns or floor up there. As the hopper just barely passed the top corner of the building, it was brought over the top of the building and it simply opened up and dumped all of its contents on that corner. The wet cement rained down, collapsing the top two floors on the corner and a lot of debris went into the safety net.

I think its important to note that the crane did not appear to do anything wrong. It did not appear to strike the building at all or have any problems. I think the fault was in the wet concrete hopper. It simply opened up for no reason and emptied all the wet concrete out at once.

[MrRezister]

Ouch. At least one possible fatality, and part of a floor is in part of another floor. Trump SoHo that was under construction. Whatever happened, a whole lot of junk and wet concrete fell out of the building.

Scary bidness.  I've worked some construction sites (thankfully no high-rise!) and any time something's on a crane, I'm watching it close.  Some of my co-workers have had some serious close calls but so far no injuries!

[Manedwolf]

More on that, with a disturbing twist if you believe such things...

(NYT) A construction worker who was pouring concrete at a condominium hotel in SoHo fell 42 floors to his death on Monday when a wooden mold used to set the concrete collapsed, the authorities said.

The accident, shortly before 2 p.m., sent wet concrete and debris flying from the top of the Trump SoHo, a sleek gray tower that is to rise 45 stories at the northwest corner of Spring Street and Varick Street, near Avenue of the Americas. The worker, whose identity was not released late Monday pending family notification, was decapitated in the fall, and landed in an alley on the west side of the construction site, at 246 Spring Street.

Ouch.

The thing about that site, though:

Donald Trump and partners resumed work building the foundation for the Trump Soho condo-hotel at Spring and Varick Sts. Wednesday following the discovery early last week of human remains at the construction site.

Berman said the Spring St. site may well be an ancient burial ground, possibly containing the remains of Lenape Indians or freed slaves, and that the developers workers may have broken them up with their digging. If the bones are Native American or connected to the Underground Railroad, the site could fall under special federal protections, Berman noted.

That's some bad juju there. Think something is...angry?

[MrRezister]

That's some bad juju there. Think something is...angry?

Interesting, but not THAT interesting. 

.... yet.

Cue the "X-Files" music.