There are more than 400 workers in the building daily

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) hosted a community meeting on July 1st to present safety and deconstruction updates on the 130 Liberty Street project. Held at the LMDC offices, the meeting introduced project managers from Bovis Lend Lease and LVI Services, who reviewed the extensive safety measures now in place at the former Deutsche Bank building.

At the meeting, Bovis’s health and safety director Ray Master outlined the systems and emergency protocols used to ensure safety both inside the building and for the surrounding community. Several of those measures are in direct response to the August fire, and include using fire-resistant materials and equipment, rebuilding safety structures, centralizing the negative-air-pressure and electric controls, and improving emergency access and egress points.

The Fire Department inspects the building’s standpipe daily, and audits other fire-safety equipment weekly. Federal, state, and city environmental regulatory agencies also conduct regular inspections, with representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Labor, and Department of Environmental Protection on site daily. The Office of Emergency Management and other agencies also work closely with project managers to ensure safety and help with community-notification procedures.

With more than 400 workers on site daily, employees and managers meet every day to review health and safety plans, and to address new issues. Crews work two eight-hour shifts daily Monday through Saturday, though the building is monitored 24 hours a day, with some deliveries and waste carting occurring overnight.

LVI project manager Roy Johnson said that Department of Buildings inspectors as well as an independent structural engineer have inspected the building’s crane, which will soon be used to remove debris from the top two floors.

Meanwhile, all materials and equipment enter and leave the building via the hoist, always passing through a decontamination unit. Debris removed from the building is double-bagged in air-tight containers and put in trucks that are sealed before heading to any of four landfills federally certified to receive hazardous waste.

The LMDC has not announced a projected end date for abatement work, but Chairman Avi Schick said that deconstruction will follow only once full decontamination is complete. Community meetings and emailed project updates will continue throughout the project.

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