Monday, September 17, 2007

Look out below!

FALLING DEBRIS NAILS CONSTRUCTION WORKER
By KEVIN FASICK and PHILIP MESSING, NY Post

September 15, 2007 -- A worker on an Upper West Side construction project was hospitalized yesterday after one of his colleagues dropped scaffolding parts from several stories above, witnesses said.

Daryl Allen, 23, was working in the rear of a new building going up at 238 W. 108th St. as unidentified colleagues carried the scaffolding materials.

Suddenly, one of the workers let go of the materials, said supervisor Dennis Hardee.

"I guess it was too heavy for him to handle," Hardee said.

Allen was rushed to St. Luke's Hospital after the 8:36 a.m. incident. "He's going to be OK," Hardee said as he visited Allen in the hospital.

City Buildings Department inspectors have handled 19 complaints about the project, a six-story, six-unit apartment building whose units are expected to sell for millions of dollars.

The developer, MRM Development of Brooklyn, was fined $10,000 in December for failing to properly remove debris as the old building on the site was demolished and for failing to follow safe demolition practices.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Buyer beware!

The project always looks better on paper.....
with the real estate agent
sweet talking.... gently into your ear !

A lot of new construction winds up being
bitter construction.....not better construction!

Many people who have moved into new digs.....
wind up preferring their old ones.....
but find themselves stuck for a few years
until they can turn over their "investment"
(hopefully) without a loss.

Suburban as well as urban junk also abounds!

I just returned from the "boonies".....
Jackson, New Jersey to be exact.....
where Toll Bros. is building
"retirement" developments.

My wife's 68+ year old cousin
who moved here about a year and a half ago,
regrets selling his older home in Morganville, N.J.
to move into this gated community.

I had a chance to examine the "quality"
of the new construction in broad daylight.

If you pushed the vinyl siding
with your index finger (as if ringing a doorbell)
the whole sheet moved in about one inch.
The windows were plastic....even the sash latches.

Thin wallboard....
and substandard (but flashy) features throughout.

The concrete patio is already cracking
after just one year.

The backyard wooded area that was supposed to screen the adjoining development
behind their home.... was non-existent
consisting of about six feet of dying trees.

The residents had to file a class action lawsuit
to get a greenbelt of evergreen trees
planted by the developer.

The remaining question is.....
will their new home hold up long enough
to outlast their tenure here on earth?

All of this for the staggering purchase price
of a half a million + dollars !

Builders are targeting the elderly
as well as the young home buyers
with empty promises and crap construction.

Queens crap is a building epidemic
that's rapidly spreading all over the USA.