“SUPER DANGEROUS”
Clifford Johnsen, a representative of the Steamfitters Local 638 union, said that the addition of new floors on top of the existing office structure had put pressure on the building’s supports.
“They keep adding. Now you put more weight, and when you put more weight, that’s what’s going to happen when it’s not engineered correctly or installed incorrectly,” he said.
“I’ve been in construction 21 years, and I’ve never seen a beam bend in half – so this is super dangerous.”
Construction worker Eddie, 28, who declined to give his full name, told AFP he was evacuated from the site and that he “was down below and I saw everyone starting to come down. Just then, they let me know that a column was broken”.
Video shared by construction workers seemed to show buckled columns within the building site.
The edifice sits on a public transport corridor used to ferry World Cup football fans from Manhattan to MetLife stadium in New Jersey. It was not active on Tuesday in the absence of any matches there.