COURIER L 38 IFE, FEB. 22–28, 2019 PS
BRIDGE
Continued from page 20
“Now imagine that the fi nger is
a big piece of wood, and the ring an
airtight metal clamp. Imagine what
happens when that wood-fi nger gets
humid and expands, with no soft skin
and blood to brace the impact,” he
said. “This is what happened to the
bridge , and the engineers and contractors
should have known this.”
Rike followed the story of the
$4-million, taxpayer-funded Squibb
Bridge for years, he said, from its
highly anticipated opening, to its
2014 closure and subsequent $3-million
repair, to its 2017 reopening, to
its second closure last year.
And he concluded that the wood
itself isn’t to blame for the recent
problems after studying pictures of
the span, and consulting with other
engineers also familiar with black
locust.
“From all the pictures I have
seen, I think the support structure
of the wood is the issue, and that’s
what’s causing the structural problems,”
he said. “Where the wood is
deteriorating, it’s simply caused by
the design of the bridge. It’s really
simple stuff.”
Indeed, even Landau admitted
how unusual it is for black locust to
rot months before he announced the
Squibb Bridge would face the wrecking
ball.
“Every wood expert we spoke to
said black locust is the best there is
— you could put it into a vat of water
for 100 years and you’d never have
deteriorat ion,” the park-keeper-inchief
said back in September. “So we
were really surprised, as was our
wood expert, when they discovered
that we had a piece with decay.”
And the beleaguered bridge’s tootight
connectors aren’t its only engineering
fl aw — its architects did not
let the black-locust planks dry long
enough to develop healthy cracks before
putting them to use, according
to Rike.
“The wood did not air dry long
enough. We think that because,
based on the pictures, there was no
cracking of the wood,” he said.
The expert is so confi dent of the
wood’s integrity that he shared his
hypothesis with Brooklyn Bridge
Park leaders, telling them he’d take
the planks off their hands. But he
has yet to receive an answer to his
offer, he said.
“We’ve been in touch with them
to tell them, they haven’t responded.
We’d also like to buy the wood and reuse
it,” Rike said. “We can still utilize
that wood.”
Rike — who unsolicitedly contacted
this newspaper, and was not
involved in designing, building,
or repairing the Squibb Bridge —
claimed he did so to set the record
straight about black-locust wood,
which he admitted is a popular material
used by his for-profi t company.
“The only motive I have is to
make sure that black locust doesn’t
get a bad name,” he said. “We did not
supply the black locust wood, but we
do have a black-locust wood company
and want to make sure the true story
gets out on this.”
Brooklyn Bridge Park leaders —
who plan to shell out $6.5 million
for the Squibb Bridge’s replacement
span — denied Rike’s claims, but refused
to share the engineering report
that led them to indefi nitely
shutter the bridge in September, instead
suggesting this reporter fi le a
Freedom of Information Law request
to obtain the document.
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On February 14, 2019,
history was made with the
signing into law by Governor
Andrew Cuomo of the
“Child Victim’s Act.” This
Act will ensure that those
who abuse children are held
accountable criminally and
civilly for their wrongdoing.
In addition, this new
statue creates a path to justice
for victims. The bill
extends the civil statute of
limitations to allow civil
actions to be brought until
a victim’s 55th birthday for
child sexual abuse which occurred
before age 18. A one
year window has been created
for adult survivors to
commence civil actions for
damages which under current
law are barred because
of the statute of limitations.
This one year window will
begin on August 14, 2019 so
victims up until their 55th
birthday can bring civil
lawsuits against individuals
or public and private
institutions from churches
to public school districts for
child sexual abuse that they
may have suffered many decades
ago.
The Legislature also removes
the current Notice
of Claim requirements for
public entities in cases involving
child sexual abuse
so a Notice of Intention to
make claim against municipalities
within 90 days is not
required in order to bring a
lawsuit.
Sexual abuse against a
child is a shameful unforgivable
act. It is a traumatizing
experience that can
take a lifetime to come to
terms with. While this new
law cannot erase what happened
to victims, it will give
victims an opportunity to
recover damages in a Court
of Law for what happened to
them.
While the one year window
to bring a legal action
will not begin August 14,
2019, victims should consult
an attorney as soon as possible
to begin the painful
and arduous task of their
gathering medical records
and other evidence of their
victimization.
Governor Cuomo and the
state Legislature are to be
commended for making the
“Child Victim’s Act” a reality.