ALBANY, NY – The City of Albany has worked tirelessly around the clock with local, state, and federal partners to assess and remediate the public safety threat caused by the ongoing deterioration of Central Warehouse.
"Today, contractors have completed the removal of loose concrete from the southern facade of the building adjacent to the rail line. Yesterday, they completed the removal of the smokestack. They will now begin the work of reinforcing portions of the southern wall to the internal structure. These actions have abated the threat to public safety and allowed Amtrak to restart train service across the Livingston Avenue rail bridge.
"As I stated on Friday, our number one priority has been to safeguard the public, and get rail service back on track. Thanks to the hard work of our Director of Buildings and Regulatory Compliance, as well as our contractors, we achieved that goal. There is still work to be done to prevent further deterioration, but we are pleased that the tracks can safely reopen.
“I would like to thank our partners in the state, in particular, Governor Kathy Hochul, Commissioner Dominguez and the team at the Department of Transportation, who has been in constant contact with me since we first learned of this matter.”
"This endeavor has made it crystal clear that the ongoing neglect by the building's owner, Evan Blum, is not only impacting our city, but commerce across the northeast. We will bill the owner of Central Warehouse for the costs associated with mitigating this threat to public safety, and urge him to take the necessary steps to prevent something similar from occurring in the future. If he refuses to do so, we will not hesitate to once again step in and protect our residents and businesses to the fullest extent of the law."
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