The Metallic Lathers and Reinforcing Ironworkers Union Local 46 and the Mason Tenders District Council of New York City filed a multimillion-dollar racketeering lawsuit yesterday against two developers and a bankrupt construction manager regarding Manhattan and Brooklyn projects. Lalezarian Developers and JMH Development allegedly conspired with construction manager HRH Construction to perform millions of dollars of work under a bogus non-union company, Leviathan Construction Management, the unions say. The suit was filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York, says Tom Kennedy, attorney at New York-based Kennedy, Jennik and Murray, who is representing the unions.

NYC officials are investigating why part of a building undergoing demolition collapsed this morning causing scaffolding to fall onto an MTA bus, resulting in minor injuries to 18 people. Part of the structure, at 301 West 125th Street, is still standing although “a large amount of it did fall down,” says a Fire Department spokesperson. The incident is thought to have occurred just before 9:26 a.m. and was brought under control at about 3 p.m., the spokesperson says.  The Dept. of Buildings received a complaint about the site on September 7, but its inspectors did not find any conditions that

Associated Builders and Contractors, Washington, D.C. and the construction unit of insurer CNA, Chicago, plan to launch a three-year partnership in January 2012 to advance best practices in the construction safety sector. CNA’s construction unit provides insurance offerings to construction contractors including insurance coverages and claim and risk control services. Under the partnership, CNA will provide ABC with access to its safety resources library, safety experts, and help to enhance the value of ABC’s Safety Training Evaluation Process, ABC says. CNA will also sponsor ABC’s annual National Safety Excellence Awards as well as the safety management track at ABC’s EdCon

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has awarded Skanska USA and its joint venture partners awards on two of New York City’s major transit extensions. The 70-30 JV of Skanska USA and Traylor Bros. Inc. has won the deal to excavate the cavern that will house the Second Avenue Subway’s 86th Street Station. Separately, the 75-25 JV of Skanska and Railworks Corp. has signed a contract to furnish and install finishes and systems at the No. 7 Line subway extension from Times Square to West 25th Street and 11th Avenue in Manhattan. Rendering Courtesy of the MTA Work is set to begin

The American Automobile Association (AAA) has asked the Dept. of Transportation to oppose the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's recently approved toll and fare hikes, saying that revenues from the increases should not be diverted to projects outside of the PANYNJ's transportation network, including the World Trade Center. The group says it is evaluating legal and other steps to contest the increases, which are set to take effect on Hudson River crossings September 18. In a letter to Ray LaHood, DOT secretary, AAA New York says that increasing tolls to pay for cost overruns stemming from real

Two adjacent housing complexes totaling 182 units and located on a vacant, New York Stat-designated Brownfield Cleanup site, broke ground in Richmond Hill, Queens, on September 7. The two projects include the 65-unit Richmond Hill Senior Living Residences and the 117-unit Richmond Place. The Arker Companies, Floral Park, N.Y. is the developer on the combined $53.9 million project. Rendering Courtesy of The Arker Companies Richmond Hill Senior Living Residences, a six-story, 62,500-sq-ft building will provide housing for elderly residents with an income below 60% of the area’s median income. The project is being financed by a combination of Low-Income Housing

Two contractor groups have asked a New York district court to look into a recent ruling in favor of project labor agreements between NYC and the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York (BCTC). The groups, the Building Industry Electrical Contractors Association and the United Electrical Contractors Association, filed a notice of appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals for the Southern District of New York on August 31. The filing follows U.S. District Judge Robert Patterson Jr.’s ruling in early August that PLAs between the city and the BCTC, an umbrella group that represents about 50

SnapShot  September 12, 2011 Submitted By: Mark Lyon, Associate, Huron Consulting Group, New York “Being interested in the work taking place in my own backyard, I took my camera and decided to see what was happening,” says Lyon, who lives on 92nd Street and 2nd Avenue, right in the middle of the Second Avenue Subway construction. He used his Nikon D5000 at f4.0 to shoot one of the large cranes being disassembled and loaded onto a truck. According to Lyon, the permit necessary to close the streets could only be issued for nighttime hours so the crew worked from 9 p.m.

Contract talks between the District Council of Carpenters and the New York Building Contractors Association are likely to continue through tonight’s deadline, officials say. NYBCA is the last of several management groups still in talks with the union, which reached tentative agreements with the Association of Wall-Ceiling & Carpentry and the Greater Floor Coverers Association on September 8, and with the Cement League on September 1. The five-year deal with the Wall-Ceiling and Floor Coverers includes a $10.65 an hour raise over five years, says Frank Spencer, head of the union. The carpenters hope for similar terms with the BCA,

KrallThornton Tomasetti, New York, has promoted Kyle Krall to senior vice principal in the firm's United Arab Emirates office. Krall previously served as a principal at the firm and is the office manager of Thornton Tomasetti's Abu Dhabi and Dubai offices. He has more than 22 years of structural engineering experience. Some of his recent work includes the New York Times Building in New York and the RBS Americas Headquarters Building in Stamford, Conn. Krall served as an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation for 10 years and has been an active member