Ernie Pierini

A large Rough Terrain crane working on an overpass in Tacoma, Washington tipped over yesterday bringing work to a halt. The crane, a 100 ton (91 tonne) three axle Link Belt TC80100 owned by Mid Mountain contractors of Kirkland Washington, was working on the laying of the last segment of track for the Sounder commuter rail extension that will run from Tacoma to Lakewood in 2012.

The winners have been chosen for the 2nd Annual Great Crane Photo Contest, which began in May received nearly 100 photo submissions from around the world and thousands of votes for the…

Babcock and ZPMC commissioned the new 1,000 tonne gantry crane today at the Rosyth dockyard in Scotland. The 90 metre high 120 metre span crane lifted a mere 150 tonne load today in front of 1,200 people to kick off the formal load testing programme.

New figures published in the UK this week show the number of employees killed in the UK construction industry last year has increased for the first time in four years. The Health and Safety Executive has released provisional data for the year to March 2011 which shows the number of workers killed was 50, an increase on the previous year, when 41 died – the majority on smaller construction sites. This is the first rise in deaths since 2006/7 when there were 79 fatalities .

REALITY: People that want to negotiate your price are in reality negotiating your profit. Any time the word “negotiate” appears in a sales situation, it means both your price AND your profit are going down.

RETHINK NEGOTIATION: Where’s “value negotiation?” Where’s “customer profitability negotiation?” Where’s “customer productivity negotiation?” Where’s “customer improved morale negotiation?” Uh, they’re nowhere. That’s because negotiations in sales have “lower price and loss of profit to the seller” at their core.

A tower crane operator died yesterday at London’s Olympic Village site in Stamford while climbing down from his cab. The man, said to be 65, was discovered in the tower of his crane, some feedback from the site suggests that he may have slipped and fell causing serious head injuries.

Small employers and owner/operators of cranes are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to complying with OSHA’s new Cranes and Derricks in Construction rule. To a degree, it’s simply a manpower issue—these individuals have to wear many hats besides crane owner and operator, including salesperson, accountant, and safety director.

Liebherr Ehingen has installed a new highly efficient, environmentally friendly paint system for large crane components. The aim of the investment is to apply a top quality paint finish to large components in a continuous process -economically. Liebherr says that the installation includes the largest capacity paint conveyor system in the world, in that it can handle individual items of up to 50 tonnes in weight.

The team at Facelift took a special ultra high resolution photograph at Vertikal Days this week.

Lifting Technologies, headquartered in Missoula, Montana has a nice working relationship with Industrial Training International. They supply crane suspended manbaskets at ITI Training Centers in Woodland, Washington and Memphis, Tennessee while hundreds of project engineers, operators, and riggers utilize them each year in crane and rigging training programs.