The photo of the construction team enjoying beverages on the job at the 245 Tenth Avenue worksite (right) prompted a special Curbed correspondent to update us in glorious detail on the situation next door. Seems the garage at 249 Tenth Avenue, which sent bricks flying into the street last week, is in worse shape than we'd heard:
Just thought I'd let you know what's up with this job. Construction on 245 Tenth got shut down (stop work order) over the weekend because 249 10th Ave has "fresh" cracks in the facade. You can actually see the crack going from the ground to the parapet. The owner of 249 must have made a complaint. That building is crap and probably overloaded with cars; it's a garage. Yesterday, the DOB "forensic engineer" (very CSI) was there to figure out how to get the job up and running again. 249 is completely underpinned (less two) and in every other pin, there is a jack so they can literally lift that whole fucking building up to plumb it; don't know if that will help cause the building's wall is actually warped too. Crazy. They keep measurements of preconstruction conditions and how far the building has moved (just under a half inch into our site to date); they do expect some movement. Those pipes you see in the photo with the drunken foreman are for "dewatering." They have to pump 24/7 to lower the water table so they can pour the foundation. Lowering the water table may have caused the building to settle. At any rate, this should only be a 2 or 3 day shutdown--hopefully. As far as 249 collapsing? I I'm going to say I doubt it. If it does though, it's not due to the excavation (it is underpinned afterall), it would be due to lack of maintenance by the owner. Most of those cracks are pre-existing in a preconstruction video. · Building Collapse Betting Pool: Tenth Ave/25th Street Update [Curbed]
· Building Collapse Betting Pool: Tenth Ave/25th Street [Curbed]