Construction Magazine September 2014 | Page 50

Willow Island Cooling Tower
New York City Crane Collapse
top 10

05

Willow Island Cooling Tower

The skeletal remains of the unfinished apartment building at 303 East 51st Street

06

New York City Crane Collapse

In April 1978 , an underconstruction cooling tower at a Willow Island power station collapsed at a height of 166 feet when , as a bucket of concrete was being raised , the cable hoisting it slackened , causing the crane hoisting it to fall into the tower , and the scaffolding to collapse , killing all 51 construction workers on it as concrete unwrapped from the tower . OSHA cited Willow Island contractors for 20 violations .
In 2008 , a luffing-jib tower crane over a high-rise construction site in East Manhattan snapped off and fell into a town house . Seven people lost their lives . Tragically , this accident was all-too predictable . The New York Department of Buildings had issued 13 safety violations for construction site and contractor . 303 East 51st Street remains incomplete to this day .
50 September 2014