Jobsite injuries in New York City decline 20% since 2017

The New York City Department of Buildings says the city has had more than a 20% decrease in jobsite injuries since 2017.

The department cited stepped up safety training as a reason for the improvement. The department has issued 100,000 Site Safety Training (SST) cards since local legislation passed in 2017 imposed mandatory site safety training for construction workers in the city.

The number of cards issued to workers who completed training indicates buy-in from the building community, the department says. Buildings department officials also announced that they have started taking applications for the Construction Site Safety Reimbursement Program, a one-time grant to help offset the cost of training for construction companies with up to 15 employees.

Construction workers on large and complex projects must obtain an SST card by completing at least 40 hours of OSHA- and New York City buildings department-approved safety training. Construction workers on covered jobsites must complete 40 hours of safety training and obtain their SST cards by March 1, the final compliance deadline.

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.