Making building safer

Proposals for improving safety at construction sites in New York City after a rash of fatal accidents stacked up like high-rise scaffolding at a City Council hearing on Tuesday.

Everyone Has an Idea to Make Construction Sites Safer

There were 12 separate bills proposing a variety of measures: requiring contractors to hire independent monitors; registering builders; establishing a hot line to report unsafe working conditions; and denying permits to developers who habitually flout the rules. But there was little agreement on which of those measures would actually prevent accidents and which would only enlarge an already overburdened bureaucracy.

The city’s real estate industry and construction unions proposed a more wholesale solution: replacing the city’s beleaguered Department of Buildings altogether with a new public corporation that advocates said would act more decisively and provide greater flexibility, while recruiting and training qualified professionals.

See also AMNY's coverage of the call to abolish the DOB.