Crane Collapses From Building Under Construction In Midtown

CBS New York ^ | October 29,2012

[Hojczyk]

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The FDNY is at a high-rise under construction in Midtown where a crane has collapsed.

The call came in around 2:30 p.m. Monday at the building on West 57th Street. The top of the crane, about 75-stories up, could be seen dangling down from the luxury building.

WATCH LIVE: CBS 2 | LISTEN NOW: 1010 WINS | WCBS 880

All residents of buildings on West 57th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues have been ordered to move to lower floors. All others have been told to avoid the area.

There is no falling debris, but the Department of Buildings is on the scene. Emergency officials have also closed the westbound side of 57th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues.

The site of the crane collapse is One57, a 1,004-foot tower that once completed, will be New York City’s tallest residential building.

All construction work in the city was suspended by the Department of Buildings at 5 p.m. Saturday in anticipation of high winds from Hurricane Sandy. Contractors and property owners were told to secure construction sites and buildings.

The Department of Buildings said Sunday that it had inspected all construction sites in the city.

So far, no word of any injuries.

Stay with CBSNewYork.com as this story continues to develop.

[jmacusa]

Usually there is a material/personnel hoist(elevator) erected on the outside of every highrise construction project in every major city and the derrick would be hauled up and assembled . And yes, it would require men, ‘’riggers’’ to have to crawl out as best they can wearing safety harnesses to undertake the job. They’re well paid for it— and well trained. “Walking steel’’ is not a job for the faint-hearted. The main enemy right now is the high winds. Even without a hurricane OSHA laws and union and insurance regulations prohibit a normal work day raising steel and heavy loads if it’s raining or the winds are too high. There is every chance because of the weight of that boom and the way its hanging it could pull the whole crane down. Helicopters aren’t used in NYC for this kind of work and NYC prohibits helicopters flying over Manhattan for some thirty years now as the result of a deadly accident that long ago.

[jmacusa]

Usually there is a material/personnel hoist(elevator) erected on the outside of every highrise construction project in every major city and the derrick would be hauled up and assembled . And yes, it would require men, ‘’riggers’’ to have to crawl out as best they can wearing safety harnesses to undertake the job. They’re well paid for it— and well trained. “Walking steel’’ is not a job for the faint-hearted. The main enemy right now is the high winds. Even without a hurricane OSHA laws and union and insurance regulations prohibit a normal work day raising steel and heavy loads if it’s raining or the winds are too high. There is every chance because of the weight of that boom and the way its hanging it could pull the whole crane down. Helicopters aren’t used in NYC for this kind of work and NYC prohibits helicopters flying over Manhattan for some thirty years now as the result of a deadly accident that long ago.

[jmacusa]

Sorry for the double post.

[Hebrews 11:6]

Thanks—your cogent reply deserved double-posting!

[Larry - Moe and Curly]

Wulie wrote: “what would be the concerns? that the re-bar reinforced cement domed reactor would not take the winds? ain’t an issue; or that the Hudson River will rise forty or sixty feet due to 5-10 inches of rain - ain’t gonna happen

silly queastions derserve silly answers”

From CBS news and other news sources this morning (10/30/12):
“WASHINGTON - Part of a nuclear power plant was shut down late Monday while another plant — the nation’s oldest — was put on alert after waters from superstorm Sandy rose 6 feet above sea level.

One of the units at Indian Point, a plant about 45 miles north of New York City, was shut down around 10:45 p.m. because of external electrical grid issues said Entergy Corp., which operates the plant. The company said there was no risk to employees or the public, and the plant was not at risk due to water levels from the Hudson River, which reached 9 feet 8 inches and was subsiding. Another unit at the plant was still operating at full power.”

Your uncalled-for snotty answer to a legitimate question says volumes about your character - or lack thereof. It’s the type of response that should be coming from a teenager who knows everything, not an adult who should know better.

By the way, a sentence is started with a capital letter and ended with a period or other punctuation. You’ve been texting too much. Oh, and spell check is your friend.

[Wuli]

“Your uncalled-for snotty answer to a legitimate question says volumes about your character - or lack thereof.”

As the evidence in your own information showed, there were no safety concerns AT the Indian Point Plant and any cause for shutting any of it’s system was related to external conditions and for reasons needed by those conditions, not intrinsicly for safety concerns about the plant.

As to any other nuclear plants that were reported about, I expect any reasons they might have been shut down were for similar external reasons as I have seen nor heard any reports of any safety issues AT THE PLANTS anywhere here on the east coast.

Had the question been simply about “power plants” it might not have been silly. but the unfounded idea that just because a power plant is a nuclear power plant it is inherently unsafe or unstable is unfounded and silly.

The one power plant that I head had some internal explosion last night was a conventional power plant in lower Manhattan on the East River; and having lived for about 12 years in Manhattan and lived near Manhattan for another 30 I can report that that power plant has had multiple tragedies (once causing the neighborhood around it be evacuated due to taxic fumes from a fire there.

So yes, particular attention to Indian Point is silly.

[Larry - Moe and Curly]

“Had the question been simply about “power plants” it might not have been silly. but the unfounded idea that just because a power plant is a nuclear power plant it is inherently unsafe or unstable is unfounded and silly.”

I asked about Indian Point because I have a special interest in THAT facility and not others in the area. So, paying “...particular attention to Indian Point is silly.”, is not.

If I had only known ahead of time that the unscheduled shutdown at Indian Point (not an insignificant event, by the way) would be caused by “external conditions” not associated with the storm (snort) I probably wouldn’t have asked the question to begin with.

Just beacuse someone uses the word “nuclear” in a sentence does not automatically make them an environmental wacko deserving derision and ridicule. I lived on a nuc sub for 3 years. I’m very familiar with the inherently safe nature of nuclear power plants. However, because of the flooding issues at Fukimashim and the Cooper Nuclear Station in Nebraska, I thought I’d ask the question.

Your critique of my question was uncalled-for, unwarranted, unnecessary and snarky.

[Wuli]

“However, because of the flooding issues at Fukimashim and the Cooper Nuclear Station in Nebraska, I thought I’d ask the question. Your critique of my question was uncalled-for, unwarranted, unnecessary and snarky.”

For someone who has some special concerns about power from the Indian Point plant, it does surprise me that you are not so well informed as to know the analogy to Fukishima and to its flooding is illogical with an educated understanding of the Indian Point plant and this storm.

Though my electricity does not come from Indian Point and though I do not live very near it, contending with the anti-nuclear-power wackos caused me long ago to become familiar with Indian Point and what were and were not legitimate emergency concerns about it, including what kind of weather conditions could possibly endanger it. I just assumed most people who had more intimate concerns with Indian Point would do the same. My apologies.

[Larry - Moe and Curly]

Apology accepted. I live in Texas and don’t know specifics about the plant other than it’s on the Hudson River and had an “historic storm” with possibly buckets and buckets of rain bearing down on it. Hence, the question.

My interest in Indian Point is related to the company that owns it, not the power it generates.

[acecrane]

Amazing how that piece is meant for heavy loads of building material and wind did that to it. Jib Cranes also design for heavy material lifting.