Concrete Accident Results In Stop Work Order At 200 Amsterdam

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The city Department of Buildings issued an order to limit construction at 200 Amsterdam Avenue, one of the neighborhood's most controversial developments, following a construction accident at the site earlier this month, a department spokesman told Patch.

A partial stop work order was issued against the development following a Dec. 6 accident involving a concrete spill, a DOB spokesman said. Developers will not be able to conduct any concrete work at the site until the partial stop work order is rescinded by the DOB. Neighborhood publication the West Side Rag first noticed the stop work order.

Workers were pouring concrete on the development's 11th floor when the pour hose struck a piece of wooden formwork, causing a concrete spill of three cubic yard, a DOB spokesman said. No workers were injured during the accident, and the building's structural stability was not compromised.

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The city issued violations for: Failure to safeguard the construction site, failure to conform to the approved designs for the formwork, failure to submit a formwork inspection report to the department and failure to submit engineering reports.

Developers will be required to submit the missing paperwork as well as a plan detailing the "means and methods" that will be implemented at the construction site to prevent further accidents. When all the paperwork is submitted and the plan is approved, the DOB will lift the stop work order, a department spokesman said.

Developer SJP Properties can still conduct any non-concrete work at the site while the order is active. The developer said in a statement that it is currently working with the city to have the order rescinded.

"Construction at 200 Amsterdam is underway. We currently have over 100 workers throughout the construction site and are making continued progress. We are addressing a concrete-related matter and are coordinating closely with DOB," developers said in a statement. "We fully expect to have this issue resolved within the next couple of days."

Neighborhood preservation groups filed a legal challenge to block the development in October. The Committee for Environmentally Sound Development's challenge claims developers gerrymandered 200 Amsterdam's zoning lot to obtain out-of-scale building rights and is supported by local City Council Member Helen Rosenthal.

When 200 Amsterdam Ave. was first proposed by SJP Properties it was set to become the tallest building on the Upper West Side. Extell Development's recently proposed 15 W. 65th St. — which would rise 775-feet-tall — has since taken that title. Neighborhood groups and politicians are also fighting that development.

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