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What construction slowdown?

Manufacturing continues to plug along, not expanding, but not exactly in a slump either. The Institute for Supply Management"s index, the PMI, released this week, grew slightly, from 48.6 in April to 49.6 in Maystill not in growth mode, but it"s more than most had predicted.

The view from the airplane window shows an economy as a series of dichotomies: on the one hand this, on the other hand that. There"s weakness in the auto and residential construction sectors, but on the other hand there"s growth in export-related manufacturing, including machine-building, and there"s continued growth in the commercial building sector for hospitals and hotels.

That"s the view at 30,000 feet. However, many have quite different views at ground level. Just ask the city dwellers on Manhattan Island.

For them, a construction industry slowdown sounds about as foreign as driving a car to work. New York real estate remains a good investment for structural fabricators and the general contractors, erectors, architects, crane owners, engineers, and others they work with to build those high rises.

Only, there"s a problem.

The construction boomunprecedented in reach across all five boroughshas been a challenge for the Buildings Department. In the midst of growing demand, our buildings inspectors, enforcement officials, architects, engineers, and dedicated support staff have raced to make their agency transparent, efficient, and accountable. But Friday's deadly accident and the number of construction fatalities and accidents that have already occurred this year demonstrate that more must be done to protect the city's construction workers and all New Yorkers.

That was New York City Building Commissioner Robert LiMandri in a Sunday New York Daily News editorial.

The incident he referred to, of course, is the deadly crane accident that happened Friday morning, the second such accident in the city this year. Unlike the one in March, which killed seven and was blamed on faulty procedures on the part of on-site construction personnel, this accident investigation targets the crane owner and, more specifically, a repair weld that helped hold the turntable connecting the operator"s cab to the crane tower.

The New York Times reported the turntable was a rebuilt version of one removed from another construction project on the West Side last spring after a dangerous crack was discovered in a steel part.

The crane owner, New York Crane & Equipment, had sent the damaged turntable to a welding company in New Jersey for repair after the crack was discovered in May 2007, the paper reported.

Bill Smith, president of claims and risk management for NationsBuilders Insurance Services, told the Times that a visual inspection suggested that it had not adequately penetrated the metal for complete fusion.

Investigators admitted it"s too early to pinpoint what actually caused the accident. Initial reports suggest the weld was indeed performed by certified personnel, and the crane was inspected by another third party. Also, investigators aren"t ruling out other possible causes. For instance, the crane may have been overloaded.

Regardless of the cause, I hope city officials and politicians don"t come out of this pointing their fingers but doing nothing. Sure, as Robert LiMandri suggested, more regulation should be there to protect peopleno doubt about that. Judging by the public outcry, many blame developers who have a profit motive to shorten the construction cycle. And they certainly have a point thereno doubt about that either.

But through all this, I hope it brings to light the importance of the infrastructure-building and construction professions, welding among them. The country"s chronic welder shortage continues, just at a time when our aging infrastructure needs them. Their day-to-day decisionsbe they for a building or bridgeliterally can avert future disasters. You can"t say that about too many jobs.

In short, these professions should never be taken for grantedand they deserve our country"s best.