Recently, a construction crew was using a drilling rig at a construction site in Long Island City when the rig hit a high-pressure gas line. According to the New York Post, a “geyser of flame erupted” after the gas line was hit.  Fortunately, the two-alarm fire was contained in the rig and the fire did not spread. The fire burned so hot that the windows on a factory nearby melted.  Workers were able to flee the area when the drilling rig hit the gas line because they smelled the gas.  Only one worker sustained a minor injury and none of the other 40 workers who

Many news reports, newsletter pieces and other types of articles deal with the controversy of New York Labor Law 240 and the environment that New York construction workers often face while on the job. Some sources go deeper into the reality of labor environments by discussing statistics in order to talk about what happens within a given industry. In a previous article posted on Real Estate Weekly Online, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimated that of the 3,929 work fatalities that occurred in the private industry in 2013 across the country, 20 percent of those

Construction is everywhere in New York City, as older spaces are improved and maintained and newer spaces are being rapidly built. As De Zeen Magazine explains, a construction boom is going on right now — particularly in the residential market. The value of construction projects in the first half of 2015 alone was $22.2 billion, which was close to the $26.2 billion spent on construction over the entire course of 2014. This increase in development is great news for the city, as well as developers and construction workers. However, an increase in construction does not come without risk. There is a very real danger of

There’s a great deal of debate in Albany and all around the state about New York’s scaffold law, which is one of the strictest of its kind in the country. This portion of New York labor law came to be when workers began constructing some of the earlier skyscrapers that made New York what it is today. Government regulators realized that this type of work is extremely dangerous, and accordingly, they tried to come up with broad-ranging legislation to protect workers. Today, some feel like the scaffolding laws are still necessary to protect workers, while others think that they’re depressing the construction market and are