Lab Fined for Dishonest Report on Building Materials for NYC Construction

A company and its laboratory director admitted Friday they faked test results for concrete formulas for the World Trade Center memorial, a LaGuardia Airport control tower and dozens of other New York City buildings.
 
Stallone Testing Laboratories Inc. and William Bayer pleaded guilty Friday to offering a false instrument for filing, acknowledging they falsified tests intended to ensure that concrete will stand up to pressure.
 
Their guilty pleas came less than two months after a different concrete testing firm, Testwell Laboratories Inc., and two executives were convicted of racketeering in a similar but far more sweeping case.
 
The cases heightened attention to construction safety during the city's recent building boom, though officials have reviewed the labs' projects and haven't sounded any safety alarms. The prosecutions prompted new checks on concrete testing and the labs licensed to do it.
 
As part of the guilty plea, Stallone is expected to pay a $1,500 fine. The company has lost its concrete testing license. Bayer's case is expected to be closed without jail time or probation if the 69-year-old stays out of trouble for three years.
 
Stallone was a fairly small player in the local concrete testing industry, but the Port Chester, N.Y.-based company still had a hand in big construction projects ranging from the upcoming Second Avenue Subway to Goldman Sachs' new headquarters.
 
Under the city building code, a lab hired for a construction project is supposed to mix up batches of concrete formulas, or "mix designs," and subject them to pressure until they break.
 
In response to a judge's questions, Bayer acknowledged he let results be provided when he knew the tests hadn't been done for more than 90 projects, including schools, a parking garage and subway stations.
 
Bayer was a part-timer who had worked for Stallone for less than two years before he was indicted in July, according to prosecutors.