New York City construction site inspections, enforcement found ‘inadequate’

A new report by the New York State Comptroller found that New York City construction site inspections and regulation enforcement need improvement.

The state watchdog found that nearly 90% of active New York City construction sites it visited had safety problems. It also said the city’s Department of Buildings doesn’t effectively prioritize which sites get inspected.

Officials from the Comptroller’s office visited 18 active construction sites last summer and reported that 16 of those sites had a total of 77 safety issues. The problems included not having a site safety manager, missing or incomplete site safety logs and daily inspection records, and no documentation of workers completing required site safety training or attending mandatory safety meetings.

In 60% of cases where hazardous conditions were present for more than 30 days, DOB did not issue a citation for failing to correct the problem, the report says. The DOB agreed with most recommendations made to improve practices as cited in the report, which included more timely action to fix hazardous conditions at job sites.

The city department’s chief also noted that conditions “may change on a daily, or even hourly basis; therefore, the types of conditions that the auditors noted may not be present at the time of DOB’s inspection.”