Residents and businesses displaced by a broken crane dangling 1,000 feet over West 57th Street should be able to return to their homes and jobs by Monday, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday.
“The crane is currently stable,” said the mayor, as residents — briefly allowed back into nearby buildings — were instructed to take essential belongings and return next week.
The crane’s boom was blown back over its engine as the storm grew fierce at about 2:30 p.m. Monday.
The mayor said city engineers have been in the building since Tuesday, and have “determined the ties that bind the [crane] tower to the building are secure.”
By tomorrow, he said, workers will be able “to tie the boom to the building.”
Then officials can reopen West 57th Street — closed since Monday at the height of the storm — and begin taking down the broken crane at the under-construction luxury building.
Crane-industry consultant Tom Barth said the process could take weeks.
They’ll “eventually construct another crane next to it to take down this one,” the mayor said.