Worker who died at Gateway tunnel site clocked ‘crazy hours’ before death, colleague says

The construction worker who fell to his death at a sprawling Manhattan jobsite on Thursday put in excessive hours in recent weeks while managers sped to catch up on delays to the project’s schedule, according to the man’s best friend and co-worker.

Jorge Sanchez, who was 52, worked on the $16.1 billion effort to build a new set of train tunnels beneath the Hudson River as part of the Gateway Program. FDNY officials said he was harnessed to a recently poured concrete wall when he fell roughly 50 feet. The exact cause of Sanchez’s death remains under investigation.

Nery Rodas, Sachez’s best friend who worked with him on the jobsite, said they were both pressured to work loads of overtime in recent weeks. He cited one weekend earlier in October, when he worked 23 hours straight and Sanchez worked a 35-hour shift. He said the pressure from managers to work longer hours could’ve contributed to human error on the site.

The death highlights the danger construction workers face on the job in New York.

“They always tell us, we’re being behind schedule, being behind schedule,” said Rodas. “We’re humans working all those crazy hours that we work .. The body gets tired.”

Sanchez was harnessed to the wall alongside two other workers when he fell, Rodas said.

Officials from the Gateway Development Commission, which is overseeing the tunnel construction, deferred all questions on the death to Amtrak and Related Companies, which both own the property where Sanchez died. Representatives for two companies did not respond to requests for comment.

Sanchez, who worked for New York Concrete Company when he died, never complained about the long hours, according to Rodas. An immigrant from Honduras, Sanchez shrugged off the workload when he put in a 35-hour day, Rodas said.

“I came to this country to work,” Rodas, who himself is an immigrant from Guatemala, recalled Sanchez saying during that extra-long shift. “I came here to work. I’m not coming here for vacation. I’m not a tourist. I’m a working man.”

Rodas said Sanchez was highly skilled in cement work, carpentry, rebar work and as an electrician. The two met in 2001 and became fast friends, working construction jobs together across the five boroughs and Long Island. Rodas said he was like a brother.

“He was a guy that loved his family. He loved to spend time with his family, loved to work,” Rodas said. “He never said no about work. When you need him, he never said no. It doesn’t matter how much, how tired he was, he was helping anybody.”

Mike Power, an OSHA instructor and fellow carpenter in the New York City & Vicinity District Council of Carpenters Local 157, speculated there could have been an issue with Sanchez’s harness.

“Construction is one of the top five deadliest trades in the world … you do your best and you have all the safety standards, but it’s dangerous,” Power, who met Sanchez for the first time last week, said. “Bad things happen to good people. It could happen to any of us.”

Rodas noted the work area is monitored by video, which might reveal exactly how Sanchez fell.

Rodas said another one of his friends was also injured on the jobsite in June. ABC7 reported he was hit by heavy machinery while working in a 30-foot hole.

Federal funding for the Gateway Project has, in recent weeks, been threatened by President Donald Trump, who said he would target the project in retaliation for U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer’s role in the ongoing government shutdown. In trying to withhold funding, federal transportation officials demanded a review of New York rules that require some construction contracts to go to minority- and women-owned businesses.

Rodas said he and Sanchez both ignored politics while on the job, and simply wanted to make it home safe with an honest day’s pay.

“This is the type of people that come to work in this country, they die for this country,” Rodas said. “We are not criminals. We are hardworking people coming to build a better life.”