Saturday, February 17, 2007

 

A reminder : Crane Accident at 110 3rd Avenue

110 3rd avenue Thursday afternoon 15 February ,2007
The cab that was crushed injuring two people .





40,000 lb.s of steel counter weights precariously placed in a crumpled and torn restraining pocket as the result of the precipitous 4 ft or so decent of the upper part of the crane due to the failure of the attatchment of the hydraulic assembly to the white tower .What if ...these 40,000 lb.s of weights had torn through the steel that luckily held them in place ?
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This freely hanging orange H shaped frame , a load bearing structure intended to be used to attatch the hydraulic cylinder above to the tower was supposed to be attached with a special manufacturer supplied clamp to the white tower : it was not so attatched according to manufacturer and DOB. It is claimed by DOB that this failure to use the proper clamp by a crew that was not under the supervision of a licensed Master Rigger was the cause of the accident .
There was a 4 part post concerning this crane accident at the beginning of last October 2006 on this blog titled : Crane Accident at 110 3rd Avenue . This 4 part post covers in detail this crane accident .

Next month Tishman Construction Corp. , Bernard Stinchcomb , Broadway Concrete and Ernesto Tersigni are required to appear before the Environment Control Board (ECB) , an administrative court , to determine in detail what happened and who is responsible for the accident at 110 3rd avenue last September 29 ,2006 .
For now take a look at the building profile provided by the Department of Buildings for some of the details . Notice the ECB violations pertaining to the accident , previous violations and fines for other violations at the site and also the nature of the anonymous complaints concerning the operaters of the crane on the day that it partially collapsed listed as part of the public record .Notice also the severity rating of this accident and its resulting violations . Please note also that the DOB does not do a very reliable job of keeping the building profile current and accurate : there may be errors.
As always click on the images to enlarge them and click below for the building profile .
There will be more technical detail later in a second part of this post .
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Wednesday, February 14, 2007

 

Old " Patch-eye"


Jewels recently had a little run-in with one of the locals and ended up with a damaged eye . Seems the other guy had a rather ornate ring on his finger that nastily cut-up the flesh ,which required some surgery to repair , around his eye and also the eye itself as he punched Jewels . I'm not sure who won this contest or if it ever really went far enough to have a clear winner and loser but Jewels certainly took some damage .
Even with the damage Jewels claims that he bears no grudge against the guy who punched him: these things just sort of happen every now and then on avenue A .

 

Gas-Part 2

Above : The leak at 7th street and St. Marks Place is repaired .
Above : The stainless steel band above is the device used to repair the leak at 7th and St. Marks Place and will be used also to repair the leak art 80 E. 4th street . The band is placed over the leaking area of the pipe and is drawn up tightly around the pipe compressing an elastomeric gasket which seals the leak . Sometimes this is a permanent fix and sometimes it is a temporary fix which will hold untill a larger section of damged or weakened pipe can be replaced with either a high density plastic or steel pipe .


Searching for the leak at 80 E. 4th street these Con Edison workers will soon make this leak ,which required evacuations on 4th street earlier today , history .


Tuesday, February 13, 2007

 

Gas

Around 11:30 P.M. Monday night FDNY was called to the intersection of ave. A and St. Marks Place to investigate and verify the presence of the odor of natural gas . Gas detectors were used as well as noses to verify the presence of natural gas in the area of the intersection and further testing was done up and down ave. A to determine where the exact location of the leak was . Deeming the leak serious FDNY requested that Con Edison come to the scene to locate and repair the leak .
The area was cleared of and closed to traffic on ave. A from 7th street to 9th street and St. Marks Place was cordoned off 100 yards or so from its intersection with ave. A. Pedestrian traffic was blocked in the immediate area .

Con Edison employees checked manholes and basements up and down ave. A from 7th street to 9th street in the attempt to determine the source of the very noticeable gas odor .


Nino's Pizza and the tennants of131 ave A were evacuated by FDNY just to be safe .




Battalion Chief Redican and a team of FDNY specialists confer with Con Edison employees that have been searching for the leak .




A portable command post was set up to administer a situation that could possibly become a major FDNY operation .




Two chiefs confer with a Con Edison supervisor concerning the situation at hand .
Three ambulances have been placed in Tompkins Square Park along with 3 or 4 other ambulaces parked nearby on the street ... just in case something goes wrong .






Finally Con Edison is closing in on the leak . The last stage of finding the leak involves boring holes in which to place gas detector probes . The holes also serve to vent the leaking gas safely to the atmosphere in the street thus reducing the amount of gas that leaks into building basements . The leak was found to be somewhere around the entrance to 131 ave. A .
A Con Edison supervisor suggested that the old cast iron gas main in the street was by its very nature somewhat brittle and in cold weather even more brittle and that heavy traffic moving the surrounding soil probably caused the cast iron pipe to crack and thus leak gas .









When FDNY evacuated her building Dori took her two dogs and two of her nieghbors ,Jerry and Tim , to her restaurant ,"Dawgs On Park" , for coffee and a warm place to wait out their temporary homeless condition .When I photographed them outside Ray's Candystore they were on their way back to their apartments having been informed by FDNY that it was safe to return home .







Monday, February 12, 2007

 

11 Feb 2007 - Reverend Billy : The Wedding







































Sunday afternoon ,11 February 2007 , at the the cube in Astor Place , Anna Oman and Mathew Ott exchanged vows and rings in the presence of The Reverend Billy and 50 or so other friends and strangers .







 

11 Feb .2007-Reverend Billy : The Sermon







































Sorry but no sound for this second Sunday in a row of sermons at the Astor Place black cube.







 

11 Feb. 2007 - Reverend Billy : The Starbuck's Coffee Issues






The above documents were presented to me at the protests of 7 Feb. 2007 and 11 Feb. 2007 led by Reverend Billy . Please click on the images to enlarge them in order to more easily read them .

 

11 February 2007 -Reverend Billy:The Arrest at Starbuck's

After the sermon and the wedding at the black cube Reverend Billy prepares for the protest at Starbucks across the street from the cube . Lt. Welch explains to the Reverend Billy what the police version of the rules for the protest will be . Reverend Billy is told that if he attempts to enter Starbucks that he will be arrested :the Reverend Billy affirms that he will attempt to enter Starbucks .Lt. Welch requests that all involved try to be well behaved so that no one gets hurt , the Reverend Billy agrees .
The Reverend Billy again takes the fateful steps crossing the street to Starbucks leading his followers to the coffee house where ultimately he will be arrested .




A charmed Starbuck's employee.




A show for all the Starbuck's customers to see .




As the Reverend Billy lays on hands Lt. Welch gives the order to arrest the Reverend Billy .





The Reverend Billy is siezed ,cuffed and removed by police RMP to the 9th precinct at Ave. C and 8th street .





The remaining protesters are requested to disperse or in the end to at least allow people to enter Starbuck's .There were no more arrests .










P.S. 16:00 hrs , 12 February ,2007 :The Reverend Billy is still in custody downtown and may be held over another night . He is facing charges for criminal trepass and probably dissorderly conduct .






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