Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Debris Falls From Trump Parc for the Third Time: Are You $h!tt!ng Me?

I am so angry. Actually, first let me say I'm happy because a reader posted a comment that debris fell from the Trump construction site today; I appreciate the tip, or I would have been blissfully blogging about trivia. This is the third time an object has fallen into the busy area below. The building is on one of the most heavily-traveled roads in town, the one that leads directly to the train station and I-95, so it's not like we can easily avoid the site. I am absolutely disgusted.

This time, metal snapped off something and flew across Broad St. into a window of the UConn building. You know, that building with the all-glass front. If this situation weren't deadly, it would be funny. How can these people be so incompetent?

It is beyond unacceptable that metal is flying off of a 30 story building. So, my question is, what should be done? Should we close Broad St. and Wash. Blvd? Should we shut down construction? WHAT is the solution? Obviously, the late June "refresher course in safety" for workers didn't do much good.

If these people can't do the job right, I'm sorry, the roads really should be closed. Sucks for us, and sucks for traffic, but I don't want anyone to be killed. I think I'm going to write a letter to the editor and to the mayor.

Here's a pic of the UConn Glass Front from last fall, while they were digging the foundation for Trump Parc. That white wall with windows to the right of the yellow crane is part of Trump, I think, not UConn- I believe that whole face of UConn is all glass panels.

I'm not going anywhere near that building until it's done. In the meantime, I give Trump Parc a big Stamford Talk "F You." It's the only thing I've ever given that, but it totally deserves it.

That building has not heard the last from me.

Update 8/2/08: Stamford Talk Posts on Aftermath of Third Incident
--July 29, 2008-- "Photos of New Trump Parc Safety Measures"
--July 28, 2008-- "Odd Advocate Headline About Trump Parc"
--July 24, 2008-- "Go, Mayor Malloy! Trump Parc is SHUT DOWN..."

--Click here for my post about the second time debris fell; that post has several pics. You can also see more pics of Trump at my flickr site.

--Here is the full text of the News 12 article below.

Debris falls from Trump building for third time

(07/23/08) STAMFORD - Debris fell from the Trump Parc condo building in downtown Stamford Wednesday, for the third time.

The small piece of metal, which is described as weighing a few pounds, apparently snapped off of something and became projectile around 8 a.m. It smashed through a window at UConn's Stamford campus across the street.

The impact destroyed the outer pane of the double-pane window. Crews worked to repair the damage and picked up the broken glass.

The incident is the third since May at the site, located at Washington and Broad streets. Last month, a piece of cable fell from the 29th floor, breaking a car window. In May, a 10-pound piece of metal fell 25 stories. A deliveryman was injured in that incident.

The accidents at the condo construction site have left pedestrians wary. "There's a crosswalk here. After the second incident that occurred here, I no longer use that crosswalk," said Dr. Michael Ego, of UConn.

16 comments:

Greg said...

What do you want them to do?

The work has to be done. Shutting down the street for an extended period of time is out of the question. Slaps on the wrist don't work. Safety courses don't work. What's left?

The city has to find some way to fine the crap out of the company, and the local paper should grow a pair and actually put some pressure on the builder to answer for some of this.

What I don't want to see happen is an emotional response of "OMG BIG Bu1ldINGS are S00 Bad!" This is the fault of a builder who either sucks really bad at a project of this scale, or they are having really, really terrible luck.

Anonymous said...

What we can do is shut them down for 3 months and let the builder and construction co. bear the costs of such a shutdown. In my opinion 3 strikes, you're out. That's it. Stamford has several "undeveloped" pieces of land downtown. This can be another.

STAMFORDTALK PLS WRITE TO THE ADVOCATE. IN NYC they would have shoved the builders into the East River in cement shoes. It's happened in NYC too but NOT 3 TIMES IN A ROW. What next a sheet of glass falls on a pedestrian? Worse yet an entire crane??!

I close my sunroof every time I pass under the building. Will be taking an alternate route now.

SHUT THEM DOWN NOW. PEOPLE FIRST, MONEY LATER. F YOU CAPELLI, TRUMP ET ALL.

Anonymous said...

Thankfully no one was hurt; don't let there be a fourth time....

Devils Advocate said...

This news didn't appear in the Advocate, so it must not be true. Are you making this up Stamford Talk?

Seriously, what is up with the Advocate. How hard is it to add the story to their online site? I have to learn about this important story from a social blogger (and a fine one at that).

Move over dinosaur media conglomerates, the Bloggers are taking over.

Mr. Z said...

According to the latest from News 12, the Trump site will be shut down tomorrow at 3pm unless some set of vague "safety requirements" are met.

http://www.news12.com/CT/topstories/article?id=214940

Anonymous said...

stamford advocate finally picked it up online today. Comments are picking up

Devils Advocate said...

mr. z said "According to the latest from News 12, the Trump site will be shut down tomorrow at 3pm unless some set of vague 'safety requirements' are met."

No doubt they will need to sweep the floor a bit. That should fix the problem.

Unknown said...

Hmmm, in discussions with people who know, I found that Trump is NOT the only site that has had problems, but not as many as Trump. The building of Canterbury Green - "A woman was killed in a 1982 crane accident in Stamford when a crane overloaded with steel snapped, falling on the truck in which she sat."
The GE Building on Atlantic lost a number of glass windows before they were properly re-installed.

Anonymous said...

First off, its on the 1st page of the Advocate website. It just happen this AM so how the hell can it be in today's newspaper?

I feel like the Trump project is getting WAAAAAAY too much leinency over these safety issues because of the amount of money that the builder has committed to the city. A smaller/less profile job would not get away w/ this.

There are large buildings going up all over the downtown area (i.e. high grove) yet Trump is the only one that you hear issues about.

The construction co should be better prepared to work in a extremely high car/pedestrian zone else hire someone else. I fully support a shutdown and let them get their act together.

Kevin McKeever said...

I picked the Advocate up off the drive and knew you'd be on a tear this morning. Keep it up, ST.

xoMagicElle said...

All I can say is that as a UConn Stamford student, I am not looking forward to crossing that street every day during the upcoming semester. If even Dr. Ego won't cross in that crosswalk, what are the students supposed to do?

patty said...

The mayor is holding a news conference at 3:30

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/ci_9983616

Whitemist are you hearing anything about what he'll say?

I remember that 1982 crane collapse. It was horrific. It was often brought up in the media when the crane collapsed at UConn while building the "ConnDome." I was there that summer and saw the end result (no one died or was injured but the crane was beyond useless after).

I truly hope this site will be shut down.

Stamford Talk said...

Patty, thanks for the info! That story hasn't appeared on my RSS reader yet for some reason, so I would not have know about the press conference if you hadn't pointed it out. Hmmm should I muster the energy to go?

Greg, I'm not anti-building; I don't mind new buildings and more people living in and enjoying Stamford. (And I'm happy to have them in that condo, so they're not competing with me when I want to buy a house.) I am anti-unsafe building practices. I do not think it's par for the course for stuff to fall off enormous construction sites. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect workers to keep materials ON the building rather than sending them sailing into the street below.

I wonder how much difference fines would make; they'd have to be pretty big, right? I agree that more pressure needs to be put on the builder.

Unknown said...

Simple solution: force the Donald to walk back and forth under the construction without a hard hat for a few weeks. Wonder if there'd be any more mistakes?

Leadhyena Inrandomtan said...

Seriously though... the debris flew ACROSS THE STREET and hit the UConn building??? Will the next piece hit Dakshin? This is freaky. At first I was going to avoid the intersection but maybe now I need to avoid the whole block...

Anonymous said...

from what I gleaned from Channel 12 news report, Mayor ceased construction activities until pass muster and assigned a full-time "safety inspector" to the project from now on - he supposedly starts tomorrow.

Good job Mayor Malloy, I knew you'd come through! :)