The city's buildings department has cited Skanska USA Building Inc. after a scaffold plank fell at 350 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan while workers were adjusting a supported scaffold below, according to a Class 1 ECB violation filed October 14 and served the same day.
Per DOB records, the violation — number 39560528R, tied to BIN 1091854 at 350 Fifth Avenue — states that an inspection responding to the incident found two workers positioned directly beneath the scaffold during the adjustment work when the plank came loose. The violation carries the maximum Class 1 penalty of $10,000, none of it yet paid, and cites infraction code 1P7.
A hearing on the violation is scheduled for December 24 at 10:30 a.m. before the Environmental Control Board. The violation record does not indicate whether either worker was struck or injured, and DOB's description does not identify the specific contractor crew operating the scaffold at the time.
Class 1 violations are DOB's most serious category, reserved for conditions the department considers an immediate hazard to public safety. 350 Fifth Avenue is the Empire State Building; DOB records list Skanska USA Building Inc. as the cited respondent on this filing.
For contractors working under a GC on any supported-scaffold job, this is the violation to know by number: a scaffold adjustment with personnel underneath the load path is exactly the fact pattern Class 1 citations are built around, and a $10,000 penalty at this severity level does not get negotiated down the way lower-class violations sometimes do. Site superintendents overseeing scaffold moves should confirm exclusion zones are enforced — not just marked — before any adjustment begins.
The hearing is open to the public; the respondent or counsel can appear to contest the violation per standard ECB hearing procedure. No injury report tied to this address has been located in city incident data as of this writing.