Families were still displaced at the end of last week after a mechanical glitch in 35-story crane caused firefighters to evacuate more than 1,000 residents in the Avalon Cove apartment complex and the DoubleTree Club Suites hotel on the waterfront Wednesday.
Officials said Friday that they planned to have the crane removed Saturday.
Attached to Newport Office VII, the latest property under construction by the Lefrak Organization, the 140-ton crane hung over the three-story apartment complex, potentially threatening to crush the nearby property. Jersey City’s Office of Emergency Management cleared all areas threatened by the dangling crane, until engineers could resolve the problem.
Residents received warnings from the Jersey City Fire Department in the early morning hours, and were told to evacuate the premises. In addition, the OEM closed down the DoubleTree Club Suites across the street on Washington Boulevard.
To resolve the issue, the Lefrak Organization flew in people from out of town who know the ins and outs of cranes. A German engineer who helped design the crane, and people from the South Carolina company that built it, arrived on the scene to rectify the situation. As of Thursday evening, the crane had been stabilized by tying it to the side of a building with a steel cable.
Engineers said that the crane would affect a 200-foot radius, freeing the Avalon Cove of being affected since it is 300 feet from the construction site. Until the top of the crane had been removed, however, authorities refused to allow residents to return to their homes. “I asked the engineer if he would let his family move back in,” Mayor Glenn Cunningham said, “and he said ‘probably not.'”
On Wednesday evening, the DoubleTree was reopened and allowed displaced families to stay in its 28 vacancies. Nearby hotels, like the Sheraton in Weehawken and the Hilton in Newark, also harbored residents for the evening. With the crane still posing a threat by the end of Thursday, the hotel managed to provide another 70 rooms for the residents that had stayed at other hotels the night before. The Lefrak Organization agreed to absorb those costs.
“Jamie Lefrak has proven he’s a developer with a heart,” Cunningham said. He also commended the hotels that contributed to the city’s effort to aid the Avalon Cove residents. “[The hotels] deserve a medal, too.”
Displaced residents agreed. “The great thing is how all the hotels have come together to help people out,” said Jyoti Phadke, an Avalon Cove resident, adding that the staff was “congenial, helpful and informative.”
Phadke said she was evacuated from her apartment at 8:45 a.m. on Wednesday. She stayed at a friend’s apartment in Jersey City that evening, and helped her neighbors get a hotel room at The DoubleTree for the following evening.
Despite the inconvenience of being kept out of her home, Phadke said she put things in perspective. “After 9/11, this is nothing,” she said, remarking that she lost a close friend in the World Trade Center attacks. “It could’ve been worse.”
However, the situation has reinforced her previous disapproval of the construction around her home. “That was the main area we liked,” Phadke said, referring to the reason she moved to the apartment complex. When Phadke first moved in November 2000, the complex was free from any construction. “It wasn’t very congested,” she said.
Cunningham, the Lefrak organization, and emergency service officials were also satisfied that the situation was under control without any injuries.
But the accommodations did not alleviate the frustration of being temporarily homeless for some residents. Raksha Aggarwal stayed at the Golden Door Charter School – where the American Red Cross set up a registration booth for displaced residents – until midnight on Wednesday. She was finally told that she would be staying at the Sheraton Hotel for the evening.
“Lots of frustration,” Aggarwal said, shaking her head. “Lots of problems.”
According to Cunningham, the crane will be dismantled and removed from the site. Until then, the closest that the residents of Avalon Cove could come to their homes was a window view from the hotel across the street.