Metro

Another crane mishap at ‘Sandy’ tower

The Midtown construction site where a broken crane dangled from atop a skyscraper for nearly a week following Hurricane Sandy created another traffic tangle Monday when a 13,500-pound concrete block got stuck and hung 30 stories up for six hours.

“It does feel like it’s jinxed,’’ said Joe Volpe, the master rigger on the swanky One57 skyscraper project at 157 W. 57th St.

The massive block was being used to balance a crane when it became stuck at 9:20 a.m., hanging 400 feet above construction scaffolding over the pedestrian-packed street, officials said.

It remained there — shutting the busy two-way street — until it was safely lowered at 3:30 p.m.

“It looked like a yellow box dangling from a string,’’ said resident Linda Natapraya, 55.

“I was worried about the damage it could do if it crashed to the ground. Thirteen thousand pounds could do a lot of damage from that height.”

IT manager Tyrell Robinson, 28, who works nearby, added, “My whole office had to move to the 56th Street side of the building. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

For many, it was an incredible deja vu.

The previous construction crane at the site — soon to be the city’s tallest residential tower at 90 stories and featuring $50 million-plus pads — partially collapsed during Hurricane Sandy last October.

The accident forced the evacuation of scores of residents.

“I thought, ‘Here we go again,’ ” said an office worker Monday across the street from the site, which is between Sixth and Seventh avenues and around the corner from Carnegie Hall.

Writer Michael Gross, who was among those residents temporarily booted the first time around, said: “Today, they merely terrorized us. They didn’t actually evacuate us. I guess we should be grateful.’’

The crane is owned by James Lomma’s New York Crane company. Last year, Lomma was acquitted of manslaughter in an Upper East Side crane collapse in 2008 that killed two.

The crane at the One57 site was operated by a subcontractor.

Additional reporting by Jennifer Gould Keil