Skip to main content

New York City will require construction superintendents on building higher than three stories

New York City recently enacted legislation that will require contractors to hire construction superintendents for all major projects at buildings higher than three stories.

Another new law requires the Department of Buildings (DOB) to notify OSHA about construction code violations that may endanger workers. The measure requires reporting within 72 hours of an incident about contractors involved in the project, nature of work, hours on the job, injuries, who was hurt, collective bargaining rights of those injured, and details on the site. Contractors face fines of up to $25,000 and daily fines of as much as $1,000 for those who fail to report.

New laws also govern the use of cranes. Operators of Class-B hoisting machine must get a license rating to use certain cranes. Certain cranes must have GPS or other locating devices; and certain cranes must be equipped with data-logging equipment to record operations and work conditions.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

AAMA releases new document on aluminum fenestration and energy efficiency

The American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA) recently released a new white paper that discusses the use of aluminum in high-performing building enclosures. AMC-2-26, “Aluminum in High-Performing Building Enclosures,” is now available in the AAMA online store as a complimentary download. “This white paper was needed in order to educate and inform the marketplace about the energy advantages of using aluminum fenestration,” said Elizabeth Cotton (Kawneer), chair of the AMC Marketing Committee. “With today's technology, these products can achieve current and foreseeable stringent codes requirements in an efficient and innovative manner, as well as achieving credits through green building certification programs.” The document addresses aluminum extrusions used in the manufacture of entrances, storefront framing, curtain walls, windows and skylight fenestration systems. Aluminum products can be sustainable due to the recyclability of aluminum that helps conserve energy ...

WeWork takes on a construction management app provider

WeWork, the New York-based urban workspace designer and redeveloper that’s one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S., has acquired Fieldlens, a six-year-old producer of construction management applications that allow for more efficient on-site communications. Most construction projects “are broken social networks,” says Doug Chambers, Fieldlens’ founder. His company’s app helps make a jobsite environment more like Facebook or a social feed, where everyone on site is communicating in real time, all the time. An example Chambers gives is a project manager who is walking a site, and using the app on his smartphone to send observations, pictures, confirmations, and directives to other crew members. Chambers says that on one jobsite in Buffalo, N.Y., the Fieldlens app is facilitating 1,000 interactions per day, on average, among the 80 to 100 workers on site. “Fieldlens lets people get back to work,” and not get bogged down on a lot of administrative and paperwork duties, says Cha...

ABC's Construction Backlog Indicator rebounds in 2017

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) recently reported that its Construction Backlog Indicator (CBI) rose to 9 months during the first quarter of 2017, up 8.1 percent from the fourth quarter of 2016.  CBI is up by 0.4 months, or 4 percent, on a year-over-year basis. “This was a terrific report,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “For the first time in the series’ history, every category—firm size, industry and region—registered quarterly growth in CBI. Among the big winners were firms in the western United States and those with annual revenues between $30 million and $50 million per annum" Highlights by Region Surging financial markets helped support activity in financial centers like New York, Philadelphia and Boston. Expanding cyber-security and life sciences activity supported markets as geographically diverse as Washington/Baltimore; Austin, Texas; Silicon Valley, Calif., and Seattle.  Though backlog is slightly lower in the South on a year-over-year basis, ...