Engineer of Deficient Sidewalk Sheds Hit With $16,000 Fine

New Yorkers love to hate the ubiquitous sidewalk shed – those canopies that protect pedestrians from falling objects when people work on the exteriors of buildings. As a bonus, the sheds also block sunlight, collect garbage, and attract various species of low life. Paradoxically, these protective barriers can be dangerous. 

Such was the case last November, when a sidewalk shed at the corner of Prince Street and Broadway in Soho collapsed in high winds, injuring five people. One of them, a model named Katherine LeFavre, suffered spinal injuries and is suing multiple parties involved in the shed’s construction. 

Daniel Odigie, the engineer who designed the faulty shed, is back in the news. Crain’s reports that Odigie has been fined $16,000 for submitting deficient designs for nine sidewalk sheds in Park Slope, Midwood, Bedford-Stuyvesant and other Brooklyn neighborhoods, according to the Department of Buildings (DOB). 

After the November collapse, Rick Chandler, commissioner of the DOB, said, "This collapse was caused by sheer negligence by the engineer and contractor who put up the shed – a structure that's meant to protect people, not harm them.” 

Officials subsequently ordered repairs to another scaffolding designed by Odigie and issued 47 minor violations after reviewing every project he had submitted. Officials revoked his privilege to self-certify applications, meaning a department staffer must review every one of Odigie's plans. The $16,000 fine was a result of another round of inspections. All the faulty sheds identified in Brooklyn have been brought up to code, the department said.

Don’t expect sidewalks sheds – or the problems associated with them – to disappear anytime soon. The DOB has published a real-time interactive map showing the exact location of all permitted sidewalk sheds in the city. There are more than 7,000 of them in the five boroughs, covering almost 270 miles of sidewalk sheds. That’s enough to circle the island of Manhattan eight times. Heads up!