Department of Buildings issues partial vacate order at Chinatown parking garage
NEW YORK -- More than one week after the deadly parking garage collapse in Lower Manhattan, CBS2 is following up on the city's inspection sweep of dozens of parking structures.
One expert offered what is crucial to consider when passing by or using one of these facilities.
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The gates were down at the parking garage at 50 Bayard St. in Chinatown on Monday. Inside, it's a ghost town because the Department of Buildings issued a partial vacate order. Engineers found severely deteriorated and rusted steel beams, and cracked concrete piers, among other issues.
"They closed this garage, which is a good thing because it's a safety reason," Chinatown resident Tian Li said.
"That's pretty scary," a neighbor named Viktor said.
"This one is connected to an actual apartment building, so it seems really urgent," resident Andrew Hebert added.
It's one of four parking structures in which the city found enough violations to issue partial and full vacate orders.
The DOB says inspectors visited 78 sites to determine whether previous concerns were fixed and to determine if there were any structural concerns.
"It feels like I'm in wonderland sometimes, like what's the next building that's going to spontaneously combust?" resident Talia Krupnick said.
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Allen Azarkian is the owner/architect of Building Violation Services, a company that helps landlords stay in compliance or make repairs in response to violations. He explained how an inspector may deem a parking structure unsafe.
"Sometimes they use as simple as a mallet or maybe they do some probing where they open up sections that are in question," Azarkian said. "There's a lot of 3D technologies that can do mapping and see within the bones of the structure."
He said the DOB's website indicates how much weight is supposed to be carried on each level of a garage, and it is typical for underground levels to carry more because the vehicles are supported by the earth instead of a manmade structure.
"A lot of the buildings in New York City are well over 100 years old. They may have been built with iron or steel," Azarkian said.
Be he said as long as they're maintained well, they can potentially last another 100 years.
CBS2 was unable to reach the owner of the Bayard Street garage for comment.
Additional shutdowns may be underway as the DOB continues reviewing structures throughout the city.
