The construction industry is petitioning the city to change safety regulations that have halted hundreds of jobs.
“We’re in a boom cycle right now and projects literally are stopped in their tracts or can’t get started,” said architect Howard Zimmerman, who says his firm has 20 jobs worth millions on hold because city-required site safety inspectors are booked months in advance.
Joseph Albunio, of Manhattan’s The Safety Group, provides the courses for inspector. “I get four phone calls a day for a safety manger,” he said. “I could have 100 more jobs going.”
But few applicants have the required background as a construction supervisor.
The inspectors, who have to be on site to check safety equipment for all buildings over 15 stories, were in the news last month when two construction firms were slapped with criminal charges for hiring hairdressers and cooks to pose as licensed professionals.
Zimmerman believes the lack of licensees was partially to blame for the fraud. The Department of Buildings says there are only about 500 active inspectors.
“If 20 people are calling you up and saying, ‘I need site safety, I need site safety,’ a lot of the less scrupulous people say, ‘I can get my brother-in-law or sister-in-law to do this,’ ” Zimmerman said.
A group he belongs to, the New York City Special Riggers Association, is working on crafting a memo with the DOB, which licenses managers, to undo code changes created in 2008 that added supervisors to restoration projects. Previously they were only needed at new jobs.
But attorney Jeffrey Shapiro, who represents injured construction workers, opposes taking authority away from independent inspectors.
“If the city abandons its roles in insuring safety on the job sites . . . it will be the workers who pay for it by getting hurt,” Shapiro said.
DOB spokesman Alexander Schnell said, “The department is aware of the need for an increase for site safety inspectors.”
Any changes will have to go through the city council for approval.