DOB Cited Crews Working in 14-Foot Trenches at a Forest Hills Site

A Queens builder had crews working in excavations 12 and 14 feet deep without the required support at 110-40 70th Avenue in Forest Hills, and the Department of Buildings called it an immediate collapse hazard on September 16, 2026.

Why it matters

Trench and excavation collapse is among the deadliest hazards in construction, and the city record here is specific. ECB violation 39559231H, a Class 1 violation issued to EJ HOMES 45 LLC, says workers were framing in 12-foot and 14-foot excavations lacking required support, with the two-story building in its excavation and foundation phase. The charge is failure to provide protection at the sides of an excavation. A second Class 1 violation, 39559232J, issued the same day, says crews were doing footing work in 12- and 14-foot excavations at the rear with missing slope, posts and lagging, contrary to the approved support-of-excavation drawings. The record does not report any injury or collapse. The company’s Brooklyn address on the violation is a mailing address, not the site.

The numbers

The violations carry penalties of $5,000 and $2,500, $7,500 combined, both still pending with hearings set for November 24, 2026. The timeline is short. DOB NOW shows a soldier-beam and timber-lagging support-of-excavation permit first issued August 4, 2026, and an earthwork and foundation permit August 12, so the violations came 35 days after the foundation permit. The underlying job, an enlargement of an existing one-family house, was filed October 6, 2025 with a listed cost of $1,958,828. ACRIS shows the lot changed hands three days earlier: a $2,810,000 deed, dated October 3 and recorded October 16, 2025, from The Forest Hills Jewish Center to an individual buyer, with a $1,100,000 mortgage recorded the same day. That individual is the owner on the permits. Neither the deed nor the filings name EJ Homes 45 LLC as owner, so how the LLC relates to the owner is not shown in the record and we could not confirm it.

What’s next

The November 24 hearings will decide the penalties, and a Class 1 finding can be dismissed or upheld there. For contractors, the record is a reminder that a permitted support design does not protect a crew if the field work departs from it. More Queens and citywide construction enforcement is tracked in our New York market coverage.