NYC-WTC_000152373

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

CITY

ReliefSought for Concrete-Starved Manhattan Continued From Page DI Trucks, job sites, JI ^<'1 delivered each workday in Manhat­ tan. and miles of bridge E ,H Traffic was lighter yesterday be­ cause of Yom Kippur and prohibi­ traffic in between. tions on single-passenger automo­ -------------------------------------------- biles at some tunnels and bridges, so more concrete trucks were able to he delivered to apartment buildings » 1 get to Manhattan work sites yester­ trader construction in Manhattan fell H day. But concrete suppliers expect from 125 to as few as 25 this week, S the problem to get worse on Monday, although he said he was back up to after the Yom Kippur lull. about 100 yesterday. His trucks have Concrete is the lifeblood of most been using the Midtown Tunnel be- construction projects. Dozens of ma- cause the Williamsburg Bridge was sons, carpenters and lathers who closed to commercial traffic. spread the concrete at a job site are “Today was the first day since left waiting when the concrete trucks Sept. 11 that was decent,” he said. faU to show up. Contractors, in turn. But the suppliers say it is hard to are unable to xxinttnue to -erect'^he—survive - in their—competitive ^xisi- L-mrs steel frame of a building when they ness, where profit margins are thin. cannot pour the concrete slabs for The suppliers say they may have to > " Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times each floor as the building rises. shut down their plants until a solu- “If we can’t get the concrete, tion is found. Once trucks are loaded, like at we’ve got to stop the job,” said Bruce The concrete plants that serve Jenna Concrete in the Bronx, the Barwick, president of Columbus Cen- Manhattan are in industrial areas of concrete goes bad in 90 minutes. tre LLC, the development company Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. -------------------------------------------- buUdingAOL Time Warner Center at There, the mixture of sand, cement, nrivatelv owned Columbus Circle, the largest con- stone, water and chemicals that com- struction project in the city. pose concrete is poured into trucks, For much of the week, he said, The stren^ of the concrete can vary Street and on the East River at 127th concrete trucks were unable to reach , considerably, depending on its use. , ,, _ . the site, where four enormous deck But if the mixture sits in the drum of a ' P^’^tara and Mr. Quadrozzi cranes loom high above the nascent truck longer than 90 minutes, it be- plants in Red Hook or by the skyscraper. In an effort to make up comes too soft or too hard and fails to Gowanus Canal, near the entrance to for lost time, Mr. Barwick put dozens meet specifications. The larger sup- Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, which of workers on overtime last night pliers follow the progress of their provided quick and easy access to and arranged for up to 60 trucks to trucks with satellite tracking sys- Manhattan until it was closed to all deliver concrete from 6 p.m. tomid- terns. traffic except emergency vehicles. night, presumably when traffic on in 1987, the city closed a concrete Mr. Ferrara said that he hopes a the bridges would be light. plant it had help^ establish at West Manhattan plant would solve the in­ Rocco Tomasetti, president of Em- 57th Street and the Hudson River dustry’s problems until New York pire Transit Mix in Brooklyn, said because of problems with the private regains its footing. “But it’s not going that the number of daily truckloads operator. Only rusting hulks remain to be normal for a long time,” he said.

NYC-WTC_000152404