Construction Scaffolding Crashes Down on Broadway

Photo by Cecilia Barberot.

A large section of scaffolding at a construction site on Broadway and 85th Street came down on Thursday morning, though it appears to have been fully caught by the sidewalk shed below. FDNY got a call about an “unstable facade” at 11:20 a.m. at 2330 Broadway, a spokesman said.

Police said no one was injured in the incident.

The site is expected to be a new senior living residence development.

Update: The Department of Buildings told us the issue was with a “cocoon system” meant to safeguard the edge of the construction site:

• This morning, DOB inspectors were called to the scene at 2330 Broadway to investigate reports that of a partial cocoon system collapse at the construction site.
• 2330 Broadway is a 19-story new building project under construction, which is currently up to the 4th floor.
• Our preliminary investigation determined that workers were jumping the work site’s cocoon system, when a large portion of the cocoon collapsed onto the sidewalk along Broadway.
  • “Cocoons” are a protective netting system meant to safeguard the leading edge around building construction sites, which are moved up the side of the building as construction progresses.
  • “Jumping” is the process of moving the cocoon system up the building, to cover new floors as they are being constructed.
• The sidewalk shed sustained damage due to the collapse, but no part of the cocoon system fell to the street below.
• There were no injuries reported to DOB associated with this incident.
• DOB’s investigation into this incident is ongoing. Enforcement actions are pending the results of that investigation.

A complaint about the project made on May 21 filed with the DOB said that a crane was “swaying approximately six inches and appears that it is not adequately braced.” A DOB inspection found it was safe, however, and the compliant was listed as resolved on May 24.

Photo by Cecilia Barberot.

Construction accident on the #UWS where the sidewalk shed worked and caught the protective cladding that fell and kept it off the sidewalk & street. Crews working to shore it up. #nyc @ny1 pic.twitter.com/dFHyZ8NuL1

— Sure Rants-Alot (@voxrob) May 27, 2021

Via: West Side Rag