Just before 11 am on Monday morning, 6/26, firefighters were called to an under-construction residential building in Queens, New York after concrete scaffolding and formwork collapsed during a pour.
According to QNS, workers were on the 8th floor of the soon-to-be 18 story apartment building, when the collapse happened. 6 of the workers were transported to a nearby hospital, but none of the injuries are considered life-threatening.
QNS also reported that, since 2015, 20 complaints have been filed against this project to the New York Department of Business. Among them were complaints about failing to comply with a stop work order. The FDNY shared a photo taken by drone of this week’s collapse in Queens on Twitter, which you can see at the bottom of this article. It's not yet known what caused the collapse.
Another recent formwork collapse in Oakland, CA made headlines a few weeks ago. Video of the aftermath of that collapse showed several workers dangling from rebar and others stuck in the fresh concrete.
#FDNY drone assists with operations in today’s scaffolding collapse, 42-20 27 St, #Queens. 6 injuries reported, all non life-threatening pic.twitter.com/WjgroTvT08
— FDNY (@FDNY) June 26, 2017
Multi-employer worksites are extremely common in the construction industry, but they can still make work extremely complicated. One of those complications results when a subcontractor receives a governmental violation, such as an OSHA violation. As a controlling employer on the site, can a general contractor be held responsible for safety hazards of a subcontractor? One court says yes.
We interrupt this utter domination by Midwest states in our top 10 list with a West Coast state: Washington. This is the only non-Midwest state that has landed in the top 10 so far and, spoiler alert, it’s the only one you’re going to see.
A new 21-story apartment building proposed for Milwaukee, Wisconsin as received unanimous approval from the City Plan Commission. If built, the new tower could possibly be North America’s tallest mass timber building.
After an abundance of delays on rule that would require crane operators to be formally qualified to operate, OSHA finally landed on an effective date of February 7, 2019. After receiving feedback from industry partners, OSHA has decided to delay enforcement for 60 days for contractors who make a “good faith effort” to comply.
The USGBC recently released their 2018 ranking of the Top 10 US States for LEED construction, which is sorted by Gross Square Footage per Capita. That ranking system allows them to get a fair comparison of states, despite differences in population and number of buildings.
Michigan, the mitten shaped state consisting of two peninsulas and which also seems to be both south and north of all surrounding states somehow, lands at #5 on our list. The state is already the 6th state from the Midwest Region in the top 10, joining Indiana, Kansas, North Dakota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
JBKnowledge, a construction technology and consultancy company, has been producing their annual Construction Technology Report since 2012. Now in its 7th year, it is far and away the most comprehensive collection of survey results in the construction technology sector.
Construction Junkie has once again been nominated as one of the top construction blogs on the internet and we NEED YOUR HELP to make us #1. Each year, Construction Marketing Ideas organizes a Best Construction Blog competition featuring some the best blogs in the industry. While we’ve come up short of taking the top spot in the past, we think this year is our year.
[guest post] Construction project owners are facing a big problem: paper based progress reports and invoices are making it nearly impossible to quickly find and address errors. The tool kit of the past included a magnifying glass, a pencil (and eraser) and a calculator. Armed with endless human resources, project owners would diligently review paper based documentation for discrepancies. This MO is no longer feasible in the modern construction environment.