By Alex Robinson
A Manhattan flooring expert who was consulted on the building of a gym floor in the new Police Academy in College Point said his warnings the floor would fail were ignored.
The brand new polyurethane gym floor, recently buckled, delaying the project further and costing additional hundreds of thousands of dollars, the New York Post reported.
Janos Spitzer consulted on the project for one day back in January and said he had concerns about the structure twisting because of some of the materials being used. He said most of the materials for the floor were built with fire retardant, which has a high moisture content.
“You have to take it down and throw it away and start all over again,” he said. “When you look at the numbers, it’s pretty drastic. That made me angry because it’s my money, too.”
Spitzer said at least $25 was likely wasted per square foot on the 45,000-square-foot project.
“Everything has to be dried and prepared,” he said. “It’s not just the labor that it will take to put it together.”
In addition to the fact that no one heeded his warnings, Spitzer said he was never paid the $1,500 he charges in fees for a day’s work.
Delays have plagued the new building’s construction and have pushed the grand opening of the 10-story training facility back to January 2015.
The Police Department did not respond to questions about whether the flooring problem would further delay the opening.
It was originally scheduled to open in the spring, but damage caused by Superstorm Sandy and a fire which ripped through the $650 million building in 2013 delayed its opening until July. Construction then suffered further delays from vestiges of the fire and flood, pushing the opening back to January, when a new class of recruits is set to join the academy.
Reach reporter Alex Robinson by e-mail at arobinson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
