Sunday, June 22, 2008

Faking cement strength

Investigators are probing whether concrete strength tests were skimped on at the new Yankee Stadium, the Freedom Tower and as many as a dozen other of the city's biggest recent construction projects.

CONCRETE EVIDENCE

The probe's target is Testwell Laboratories, one of the area's leading concrete-testing companies.

Manhattan prosecutors believe the company overbilled on some of its testing services, and billed for other tests that were not performed at all, according to one investigator who asked not to be identified.

New concrete is routinely tested as a safeguard against mixing and pouring irregularities that could affect durability and strength, said the source.


(P.S. I used to love those polka-dotted cement trucks when I was a kid. They seemed to be everywhere back then.)

Photo by Moth on Flickr

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why don't they have more of those polka-dot cement truck? They look really cool.

Anonymous said...

So much for honor among theives.

When there is a feeding frenzy, a lot gets 'left on the floor.'

But since the developers are subsized by the tax payers, 'its a wash' ...

... out of our pockets.

Anonymous said...

The more one digs the more we discover that there appears to be no oversight on these projects with developers that have deep pockets.