By Julie Shapiro
The former Deutsche Bank building received yet another safety violation from the city Department of Buildings last month, for burning operations near combustible materials.
Workers using torches to cut steel columns got too close to a fuel tank, and contractor Bovis Lend Lease was issued a violation on Dec. 22, according to D.O.B. and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which owns the building.
The city did not stop work on the deconstruction project. An August 2007 fire in the building killed two firefighters and halted work there for months, and since then contractors have removed much of the flammable material from the building. However, the fuel tank was required for the equipment that cuts the steel, the L.M.D.C. said.
“We’ve made it clear to the contractor that any and all violations are unacceptable,” said Errol Cockfield, L.M.D.C. spokesperson. “Corrective action has been taken.”
Since restarting demolition in November, workers have removed the rest of the 26th floor (which was already partially taken down) and all of the 25th floor, and they are now working on the 24th floor.
Cockfield declined to comment on when the entire building might be down. The 25th floor took 19 working days to demolish, but 10 of those days were lost due to wind, so future floors could come down faster. At a rate of two weeks per floor, the building would be gone by late this year.
