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Almost exactly two years after a 150-foot part of a 600-foot retaining wall next to the Castle Village apartment buildings collapsed into the Henry Hudson Parkway, the Department of Buildings is ready to release its report. The Post have the exclusive and says DOB investigators "determined that the managers of the apartment complex and an engineering firm brought in to examine the wall knew the structure was at imminent risk of falling." The DOB feels the firm could have warned the city about the wall's instability, since its engineers had seen the "65-foot-high wall move 9 inches away from the hillside in less than a week."
Langan Engineering, the firm contracted by Castle Village apartments, said they disagreed with the findings, "We acted properly by reporting our grave concerns about the wall to Castle Village way back in 2003. We recommended that repairs be made to the wall within a year and that the wall movement be monitored. Castle Village ignored our recommendation."
The wall collapse caused millions of cubic feet of dirt to fall onto the Henry Hudson Parkway, crushing cars and took about a year to clean up. The city stuck Castle Village with the bill last year, and the building, in turn, asked its residents to pay around $23,000 each.
Top photograph of the collapsed wall by jenchung on Flickr; bottom photograph of nearly completed wall (as of February 11, 2007) by jschumacher on Flickr
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For the record, the replacement wall has changed since that bottom picture was taken. They're at least trying to blend it in with the original now so it doesn't like quite so hideous.
tons of cubic feet?
Tons is a measure of weight. Cubic feet is a measure of volume. They don't mix.
another reason co ops suck!
What about tons of fun? What are the units there smart guy?
Haha! Pay up for the luxury you have at Ur convenience . My thoughts here are why was this obvious danger to the public not addressed earlier ? Why is it that the city waits until tragedy strikes to take notice ? It's just something that should have never happened .
What do you do if you're stuck with a 23K bill unexpectedly? Those apts are really nice, but some of those residents have been living there for a long time (i.e., they aren't new people moving in with a lot of money). What happens if you just don't or can't pay? Do you get kicked out of your apt that you own?
Anya,
It's not the long-time residents that have to worry so much. They have equity to borrow against. Also some of us qualified for reverse mortgages.
A competent board would have sued Goodstein Management. But watch how in the coming weeks how the board rallies behind Goodstein and the on-site manager who made the terrible decisions that lead to the collapse.