New Yorkers have probably noticed or heard that there is currently a whole lot of new construction going on throughout the city. In fact, the rate of construction has apparently increased by 300 percent in the last seven years. The building boom is a good sign economically speaking–construction companies are keeping busy–but it is also a cause for concern when it comes to construction site accidents.
One of the risks of the heightened building activity is that New York City construction companies will see injuries and fatalities as an inevitable aspect increasing and expanding their business. The reality is that construction companies aren’t given any breaks from workplace safety requirements because they consider themselves too busy to attend to safety matters.
Fortunately, the Department of Buildings has taken steps to address the issue. Earlier this year, the Department of Buildings also hosted a safety conference for construction companies. The agency has also established new policies concerning crane safety in an effort to prevent crane collapse accidents.
In addition to these changes, the Department of Buildings established new construction superintendent regulations. A construction superintendent has the duty of running daily operations on a construction site, including controlling the short-term schedule of the project or projects and managing contractors and subcontractors.
Whereas previously a superintendent was only required on new work sites less than 10 stories tall, the agency is now requiring superintendents for all major construction projects. The reason for the change is that smaller job sites were actually found to experienced most workplace accidents in 2015. Superintendents also had their duties expanded. In our next post, we’ll look at some of these changes.