MIDTOWN, NY — Another worker was injured Monday morning at the site of the controversial future 52-story Midtown building, according to officials.
This is at least the seventh worker to be injured this year at Extell's 740 Eighth Avenue, the future site of a 1,000-foot-tall tower, capped with a nearly 300-foot-tall free-fall amusement park-style ride, and is bound to add to the dozen safety violations and tens of thousands of dollars in fines already issued by the city's Buildings Department this year alone. Sky Bike Rides
At about 8:40 a.m. on Monday, first responders were alerted that a worker had fallen on their back at the construction site, according to the FDNY.
A reader told Patch that they witnessed about 10 emergency vehicles at the construction site Monday morning and a man who was being hoisted out of the excavation pit on a gurney.
The worker was rushed to Bellevue Hospital after falling about five feet to the ground after slipping on the stairs of a stair tower and is being treated for neck and back pain, officials said.
Buildings Department inspectors visited the site and discovered a number of "inadequate housekeeping issues that created hazards at the site," including pooling water, a department spokesperson said.
Inspectors issued a summons to the contractor for a failure to address those housekeeping issues, as well as a failure to hold a pre-shift safety meeting.
Neither the contractor, industry giant Lendlease Construction, nor the site's owner, mega developer Extell, responded to Patch's requests for comment.
Lendlease was also cited in June for not holding the required safety meeting, just days before two workers were injured — one by a piece of coupling that landed on their foot, and another after a section of rebar slammed into their heads.
In February, two workers were injured when a concrete hose burst while they were engaged in pouring. Inspectors later found that the hose was "weak to withstand the pressure."
Days later, one worker had his finger smashed by drilling equipment when another worker moved it as he tried to replace the drill auger.
Lendlease also earned violations for failing to file a report after the February hose injury and both June incidents within three business days, as required by law.
And in July, a worker at the site was knocked off of a ladder when he was hit with a hoisted rock testing machine and suffered a "major injury," according to first responders at the time.
A building inspector later found that a "lack of communication" caused the worker to be injured and fined the contractor $5,000.
In August, the injured worker filed a lawsuit against Lendlease and the owners, claiming that multiple violations of safety and workplace laws led to him falling from an unsecured, elevated ladder.
In total, the site has been issued over $33,000 in Buildings Department construction safety fines this year.
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