By Evan Simko-Bednarski, Thomas Tracy
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — A carpenter working on the Hudson River Tunnel fell 50 feet to his death at the project’s Manhattan work site Thursday, officials said.
The victim, a union carpenter with the New York Concrete Corp., fell near W. 30th St. and 11th Ave. in the Hudson Yards shortly before 9 a.m. He was working on the third section of the Hudson Yards Concrete Casing, a large subterranean chamber that will link Penn Station to two new rail tubes beneath the Hudson River.
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The victim was transported to a nearby hospital, where he died, an FDNY spokesman said. His name was not immediately released.
“The Gateway Development Commission, Amtrak and Related Companies extend our profound condolences to the family of the worker,” a joint statement said. “Our thoughts are with his loved ones during this difficult time.”
The section of casing is being constructed in a deep trench west of 11th Ave. FDNY Battalion Chief Anthony Romano told reporters the man was found at the bottom of the construction pit. “The construction worker was working approximately 50 feet up on the northern wall,” Romano said. “It was a foundation wall that was poured yesterday. We do not know how or why he fell.”
All work on the concrete casing was suspended while the incident is under investigation.
“There are no words strong enough to express the pain and sadness we all feel,” Paul Capurso, executive secretary-treasurer for the NYC District Council of Carpenters, said in a statement.
“He was more than a carpenter,” Capurso said, without identifying the deceased man. “He was part of our family, a brother who stood shoulder to shoulder with us every day to build something bigger than ourselves.”
The tunnel — which has recently become embroiled in an ongoing funding battle between President Trump and elected officials in New York and New Jersey — is the centerpiece of the sweeping Gateway Project meant to double the rail lines across the New Jersey Meadowlands and into New York Penn Station.
The victim is the second worker to fall to his death in Manhattan this week. A window washer plummeted more than 70 feet when his safety harness snapped while working at Columbia University’s School of Nursing in Washington Heights Sunday morning.
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