Some of New York’s top construction projects, including the Freedom Tower and the Second Avenue Subway, include concrete not as strong as it should be, officials said yesterday after the indictment of a firm for falsely claiming to have tested the material.
Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau announced the indictments of 12 officials at the Testwell Group, an engineering firm hired to test and inspect concrete and steel at 102 construction projects, including Yankee Stadium.
“These charges are serious. But these actions endangered the lives of people, and that makes them doubly serious,” Morgenthau said.
Officials at the agencies building the Freedom Tower and the Second Avenue Subway said the amount of concrete found to be below specification was minimal and does not pose any safety concerns.
Yankees spokesman Howard Rubenstein said the team’s structural engineer determined there were no safety concerns.
A lawyer for Testwell denied the allegations.