DOB Stop-Work Orders Increased 17 Percent in 2015

The city’s Department of Buildings responded to New York’s building boom in 2015 with a significant increase in the number of stop-work orders issued at unsafe construction sites. There were 8,326 stop-work orders as of Dec. 18, which represents a 17 percent increase over 7,120 such orders in all of 2014.

The 2015 total represents a significant increase from the 5,637 stop-work orders issued by the Department of Buildings in 2011 and is tied to an increase in the number of new building permits–which jumped 8.5 percent year-over-year in 2015.

Increased DOB scrutiny of unsafe working conditions at construction sites across the city correlated with stop-work orders outpacing the city’s building boom. In 2015, New York saw an alarming increase in the number of construction-related accidents and deaths, which led to a city-wide crackdown that targeted bogus construction safety certifications at job sites.