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New York, NY - Poorly Trained Inspectors Cause of Buildings Department Disaster |
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Those are the findings of a $4 million study released by the troubled city agency at the end of a five-year building boom that led to record numbers of construction deaths.
"Inspectors are currently not uniformly equipped to judge the acceptability of common unsafe conditions," the study concluded. "They rely primarily on their own varying level of training, experience and degree of tolerance on nonconforming issues."
The report faulted the department for having "no standard training procedure" for critical field inspections and said procedures are so lax it's often impossible to to determine whether architects' plans conform to city code.
The study noted that "nonuniform enforcement is the most common industry criticism" of the Buildings Department. Violation fees "are considered a 'cost of doing business.'"
The findings come after 19 construction fatalities last year, including nine killed in two crane collapses that focused a spotlight on the Buildings Department's corrupt crane inspection unit.
The high-priced study team, led by CTL Engineers and Construction Technology Consultants, made more than 600 visits to some 400 sites in the five boroughs.
It found glaring problems in three basic construction operations - cranes, excavation and concrete - and made 66 recommendations for changes in procedures, some of which the Buildings Department has already implemented.
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Read Comments (3) — Post Yours »
1
Jun 26, 2009 at 09:05 AM Anonymous Says:
They are only here to collect money not for building safety
2
Jun 26, 2009 at 11:42 AM Askupeh Says:
It’s cynical that they train them how to give tickets, instead of what comprises safety, for which they were supposedly hired. The builders return the favor and factor it in as “the cost of doing business”.
Parking meters are the same. It probably costs more money for the upkeep of the meters then how much revenue is generated by it. So the REAL reason for parking meters is to be able to give tickets when the time expires.
I think in the future they will have parking meters with a cameras and sensors to relay the information that a car has been baited and ready for the kill.
3
Jun 26, 2009 at 03:10 PM Avrohom Abba Says:
When the mayor pulls the 300 pounders out of the Dunkin Donuts shops to give them jobs to give us tickets, he makes sure they are trained to say things like, "I'm sorry, I already began to write."
Evidently, when it comes to real estate contributions to the mayoral campaigns, suddenly his inspectors aren't trained well.