After nearly a week of extra-innings deliberation, a New York City jury finally convicted regional concrete testing giant Testwell Laboratories on Feb. 25 of racketeering stemming from allegations it filed fake test results on more than 80 buildings. Testwell Laboratories, its CEO, V. Reddy Kancharla, and Vice President Vincent Barone were found guilty of enterprise corruption, which carries a mandatory prison term of one year and could put the two executives behind bars for as many as 25 years. "Testwell’s conduct was reprehensible not only for its pattern of theft and deception, but for its utter disregard for the safety
Lawyers for two of the workers injured in the deadly Feb. 7 explosion at the Kleen Energy powerplant in Middleton, Conn. are alleging that “multiple” ignition sources were in operation while natural gas was being purged from the nearly $1 billion construction site. Electricians Timothy Hilliker and Harold Thoma of Ducci Electric, Torrington, filed a lawsuit at Superior Court in Hartford claiming the gas purge at the 87,000-sq-ft facility was conducted with minimal supervision and without following standard protocol to protect against accidental ignition. The suit names Kleen Energy Systems, the project’s owner, O&G Industries, Torrington, general contractor and minority
Lawyers for two of the workers injured in the deadly Feb. 7 explosion at the Kleen Energy powerplant in Middleton, Conn. are alleging that “multiple” ignition sources were in operation while natural gas was being purged from the nearly $1 billion construction site. AP Photo Related Links: Investigators Eye Blowdown Mishap in Connecticut Blast Electricians Timothy Hilliker and Harold Thoma of Ducci Electric, Torrington, filed a lawsuit at Superior Court in Hartford claiming the gas purge at the 87,000-sq-ft facility was conducted with minimal supervision and without following standard protocol to protect against accidental ignition. The suit names Kleen Energy
Although federal investigators are unsure about what caused a fatal explosion on Feb. 7 at a powerplant under construction in central Connecticut, local officials are saying the accident occurred during blowdown operations in preparation for the facility’s scheduled opening this summer. Photo: AP/Wideworld Combined-cycle plant, set to open later this year, suffered severe structural damage. Reports are unconfirmed that authorities are investigating the possibility that a welder’s torch may have created the spark that caused the blast. But a spokesman for the project owner, Kleen Energy Systems LLC, Middletown, Conn., says police were still treating the site as a crime
Although federal investigators are unsure of what caused Sunday’s deadly explosion at a powerplant under construction in central Connecticut, local officials are saying the accident occurred during gas line purging, or blow-down operations, in preparation for the facility’s scheduled opening this summer. Photo: AP Photo/Seth Wenig Michael Rosario, business representative for the Plumbers, Pipefitters, & HVAC Local 777, hugs a friend after telling reporters about losing three friends in the explosion at the Kleen Energy Systems power plant on Sunday in Middletown, Conn. The accident occurred just three days after the U.S. Chemical Safety Board approved recommendations on gas purging,
Though federal investigators are unsure of what caused Sunday’s deadly explosion at a power plant under construction in central Connecticut, local officials are saying the accident occurred during blowdown operations in preparation for the facility’s scheduled opening this summer. AP Photo Related Links: Lawsuit Alleges Safety Protocols Ignored in Kleen Energy Blast Although reports are unconfirmed that authorities are investigating the possibility that a welder’s torch may have created the spark that caused the blast, a spokesman for the project owner, Kleen Energy Systems, said that police were still treating the site as a crime scene. The accident occurred just
The 76-story Beekman Tower topped out today in Lower Manhattan, just months after developer Forest City Ratner stopped work on the site and threatened to cap the structure at 40 stories because of high project costs. Photo: Staff The 1.1-million-sq-ft Beekman Tower is one of the earliest success stories of New York City's Recovery PLA. The Frank Gehry-designed residential high-rise is a major victory for New York City’s Construction Industry Partnership (CIP), which, in May, agreed on a project labor agreement designed to keep troubled projects moving during the recession. Beekman Tower, helmed by construction manager Kriesler Borg Florman, Scarsdale,
On May 29, using words like “historic” and “groundbreaking,” New York City’s Construction Industry Partnership between union labor and contractors announced a project labor agreement both sides said would breathe life into an industry that had begun to circle the drain. Photo: Michael Falco Lou Colletti (far left) and Gary LaBarbera (far right) on the site of Tower 111, one of the first jobs that began after the passage of the project labor agreement. Since September 2008, the construction industry - already nursing a hangover from the city’s six-year development boom - had been bleeding jobs. After the collapse of
Construction crews on the massive One World Trade Center site Wednesday reached a milestone by placing the largest steel column to date for the $3.1 billion tower in Lower Manhattan. The 60-ft, 70 ton beam will serve as one of 24 perimeter columns that surround the building’s core. Once placed, the columns will allow the initial floors of the tower – including the lobby – to be built out. Each of the 24 columns was manufactured at the ArcelorMittal plant in Luxembourg. The steel plates were shipped to North America and fabricated in shops in South Plainfield, N.J. and Terrebonne,