Probe Of Fallen Concrete From Steinway Overpass; New Detour Announced

Probe Of Fallen Concrete From Steinway Overpass; New Detour Announced

Photos Vinny DuPre Dimitrios Godosis narrowly escaped death when a 60- by 3-foot concrete slab slammed onto the westbound lane of the Grand Central Parkway (pictured). To left of the abutment that supported the weight of the slab is some of the debris that was strewn on the parkway.

By John Toscano

An engineering firm retained by the city Department of Transportation (DOT) to investigate what might have caused a three-ton slab of concrete to fall onto the Grand Central Parkway from the Steinway Street Bridge last Friday night got underway yesterday, a DOT spokesman told the Gazette.

Meanwhile, work at the construction site on Steinway Street and Astoria Boulevard has been suspended.

City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. (D–Astoria) reported that DOT Deputy Commissioner for External Affairs David Woloch had informed him that northbound traffic on Steinway Street will be diverted at 28th Avenue, then turning left onto 37th Avenue and then left onto Astoria Boulevard to the Triborough Bridge.

Commenting on this inconvenience to motorists, Vallone stated: "I’m obviously not happy about this new, added inconvenience, but public safety must be our priority. I’m going to continue monitoring this situation to assure it is done as safely and as quickly as possible."

According to Woloch, the detour will be in effect for six to eight months.

A spokesman at Elmhurst Hospital Center reported that the motorist who narrowly escaped death when his van crashed into the 60-foot slab was in stable condition. Sources at the hospital reported that the motorist, Dimitrios Godosis, 47, of North Massapequa, Long Island, had undergone some surgical procedures on his right leg, which had been broken in the collision with the concrete slab.

DOT spokesman Tom Cocola said that the engineering firm, Weidlinger Associates, had been hired on Monday to conduct a full scale investigation into what had occurred at about 9 p.m. last Friday evening to cause the huge 60- by 3-foot slab to fall. DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall had promised a full-scale probe the day following the incident.

Thanks to fortuitous timing, the accident occurred a few hours after the late afternoon-early evening rush hour when there is generally bumper-to-bumper traffic moving slowly toward the Triborough Bridge to the west or Queens and Long Island to the east.

However, at 9 p.m. the volume of traffic along the Grand Central Parkway was relatively light and miraculously, there were no fatalities in a situation where many lives could have been lost.

Godosis was driving in the westbound lane headed toward the Triborough on his way to the pizzeria he operates, Sulton Pizza, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. He said he saw the slab falling out of the corner of his eye, but was unable to stop before it crashed onto the parkway and his van collided with it. His van was completely demolished.

Godosis was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center by ambulance where on the following day he described the accident.

"By the time I saw it [the slab] it had already hit me," he said. "I wasn’t speeding. If I was, I wouldn’t be here."

At the hospital, he was treated for severe cuts on his face and a broken right leg.

According to Cocola, Cal-Tran Associates, the construction firm which is dismantling the 70-year-old bridge preparatory to rebuilding it, had worked during Friday on the north pedestrian walkway of the bridge, the side closest to La Guardia Airport, cutting the concrete strips that would be removed later by cranes.

Cocola told reporters that as part of the demolition process, the concrete had been cut into sections by workers who sawed shallow cuts into the roadway. The following day, they were to start making deeper cuts and then the sections would be removed.

At 9 p.m., two 60-foot sections fell to the parkway below which Godosis saw but could not swerve or slow down, and his van rammed the concrete.

One possible cause for the accident was the heavy rain which occurred on Friday evening. "It happened in the middle of the rainstorm," Cocola recalled.

Cocola said Cal-Tran Associates, based in West Caldwell, New Jersey had started the demolition phase of the job recently. The total job is scheduled to be completed by the fall of 2006.

The new bridge, just as does the old one, will connect the east- and westbound lanes of Astoria Boulevard which runs parallel to the Grand Central Parkway.

The bridge serves as a point of entry into the popular and busy Steinway Street shopping district, one of the largest and busiest in the metropolitan area.

In order not to interrupt the flow of shoppers into the area, discussions were held with local public officials, business community leaders and the DOT to map out a schedule of construction. It was decided to complete work on only one side of Steinway Street and to leave the other side of the street open to keep vehicular and pedestrian traffic flowing into the business sectors on either side of Steinway Street.

At the start of construction, traffic on the Grand Central Parkway was suspended or diverted from the section under the Steinway Street Bridge when there was to be heavy construction activity on the bridge especially to avert any incidents involving passing vehicles.