Engineers: Securing One57 Crane Could Take Weeks

NEW YORK CITY-Though the city's engineers are on the job in attempting to remove or secure the dangling construction crane atop the One57 multifamily property development, the solution won't be easy or quick, and could take several weeks. Bloomberg News reports that engineers have made several trips to the top of the under-construction 90-story tower in attempts to figure  out a way to secure the dangling boom.

Anthony Sclafani, a spokesman for the New York City Department of Buildings, says that resolution won't be anytime soon. “This process is still in its early stages," he was quoted as saying in the Bloomberg article. "There’s no complete plan on how to remove it. It’s being formulated as we speak.”

City mayor Michael Bloomberg has said that the crane atop the building at 157 W. 57^th St., which partially collapsed on Oct. 29 in high winds, doesn't pose an immediate danger. However, buildings near the building (including LeParker Meridien and the Salisbury Hotel) were evacuated, streets have been shut down around the site, and performances at nearby Carnegie Hall have been cancelled until the situation is resolved.

Gary Panariello, a managing principal at Thornton Tomasetti Inc., a New York engineering firm that isn’t involved in the project, suggested in the Bloomberg article that securing the boom will require assembling another crane that can hold the hanging piece and either detach it and lower it to the ground or secure it inside the building. But Panariello noted, in an interview with Bloomberg, that assembling the derrick would involve bringing it up the tower in pieces, some of which are not readily available or located in Manhattan.

One57's developer Extell Development Co. said in a statement that it's working with the city's fire department and Office of Emergency Management to develop a recovery plan.