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August 13, 2007
Engineering Report Wards Bakery Parapet Collapse 800 Pacific Street, Brooklyn
NYC Department of Buildings report includes construction history, photos an informative drawing (click to enlarge).
As part of the extensive Atlantic Yards Redevelopment, 800 Pacific St., a vacant and deteriorated warehouse, is planned to be demolished to grade. At the time of the April 26, 2007 collapse, a specialty contractor was removing asbestos-laden material that had been applied many years previously to the interior face of the parapets and roofing surfaces. Work was 90% complete on the Pacific Street side of the complex and involved removal of cementitious and tar coatings from the interior side of the 7’ high brick parapets using scrapers and light duty electric chipping hammers when 200’ of the Pacific Street parapet fell +/- 55’ to grade.While no one was killed or even injured, the risk to the public from such a collapse prompted the Department of Buildings to undertake an inquiry into the cause of the collapse. The task was led by the Department of Building’s Forensic Engineering Unit.
The Forensic Engineering Unit has concluded that the parapet collapse was caused by structural deterioration from years of water infiltration into the steel support system on which the parapet was constructed. Forest City Ratner had been apprised of the deterioration of the façade and the parapet, but the extent of the deterioration and the risk of collapse had apparently not been communicated to the crew that had been assigned the task of removing tar and asbestos coatings from the rear of the parapet. As a result of the deteriorated conditions, even the relatively passive construction activities involved in removing the coatings precipitated the collapse of the terracotta tiles and the bricks on which they were mounted.
Click here to download report (1MB PDF).
Posted by amy at August 13, 2007 8:35 AM