The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited 160 Broadway Corp., doing business as Broadway Concrete, for numerous alleged safety and health violations, proposing $877,000 in fines.The New York City-headquartered company is the concrete contractor for the construction of 77 Hudson, a condominium project involving two 50-story condominium towers in Jersey City, N.J. Broadway Concrete is owned by Robert Cassera, who also owns Tri-State Employment Service and several other businesses.
OSHA initiated its investigation on Dec. 19, 2007, in response to a complaint alleging several fall hazards. OSHA investigators found that the company failed to provide adequate fall protection for employees exposed to falls from as high as 25 stories above the ground. The company also failed to provide protection from protruding rebar. OSHA believes most of the violations were willful because Broadway Concrete was fully aware of OSHA's fall protection requirements. Broadway Concrete's superintendent for the 77 Hudson project, as well as its vice president were previously managers at other concrete companies that had violated the same standards on many previous occasions.
In this case, OSHA visited the 77 Hudson project seven times between Dec. 19, 2007 and Jan. 24, 2008 and found the same violations on each successive floor as the building's height increased. Despite OSHA's repeated admonishments on each of these visits, Broadway Concrete's managers still failed to comply with the OSHA construction standards. As a result, OSHA cited the company for 15 willful violations, with $870,000 in penalties, and two serious violations, with $7,000 in penalties.
"The many alleged safety violations found at Broadway Concrete's site put employees at great risk for potential injuries or death," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Edwin Foulke, Jr. "Employers have a responsibility to take all required precautions to ensure a safe and healthy work environment."
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