Crane business

Three Ainscough mobile cranes have been on site at the Tower of London to provide the lift capabilities for installation of the annual winter ice rink attraction on the Tower’s grounds. Crane rental firm Ainscough have been contracted to carry out the planning and supervision of the lifts needed to support construction of the arena and visitors facilities.

A man using an aerial lift in the centre if an English town last weekend was caught on camera using the 3.5 tonne truck mount without a harness, with no cordoning off and possibly worse of all working over the top of pedestrians the reader who sent a whole series of photographs in said: “I saw this on Saturday in the centre of Huddersfield.

bauma China 2010 achieved record numbers attracting more than 150,000 visitors up 33% than in 2008. This year’s event – the fifth since its launch in 2002 and which closes today – also had more exhibitor space and numbers and is consolidating its position as the leading Chinese and Asian construction industry trade show.

A large mobile crane went over somewhere in Texas last week, from what, looking at the photographs, appears to be obvious reasons. From what we understand no one was injured in the incident. The photos were sent to us by a reader who has said little about the accident apart from observing that the rear outriggers do not appear to have been extended and there is no counterweight in place. The accident apparently occurred on November 18th although we have no firm confirmation of this date.

Chinese tower crane manufacturer Yongmao showed its new 50 tonne capacity luffing jib tower crane at bauma China 2010. After the show the first unit goes to work on a site in Shanghai. The STL1000 was sold to Tat Hong China. It will join about 700 other Yongmao tower cranes in China, according to the manufacturer.

A loader crane left in a raised position while travelling on the road, brought a pedestrian bridge down onto other traffic, during the rush hour in Helsinki yesterday, resulting in one death and three other injuries.

A reader in has Northern Ireland reported a near miss with a self-erecting tower crane earlier this week. The crane’s jib buckled and fell but was retained by its hoist cables. We do not know much about what happened, but we do know that it was on a site in Downpatrick.

The second International Crane Summit opened yesterday (22November) in Shanghai, China, with around 250 delegates from over 90 companies and 25 countries. The audience heard from a wide range of speakers from China, the US and Europe.

Comansa Jie, the Chinese joint venture tower crane manufacturer owned by Comansa of Spain and Jie Holding Group, is launching a new 18 tonne CJ 550 flat-top tower crane at Bauma China this week.

Six people died and one was injured on Saturday after a tower crane came down in Dandong City, northeast China’s Liaoning Province, close to the North Korean border. Six men were apparently working on the 50 metre crane when it went over on a construction site in the Zhenxing District. Four died at the scene, while the other two died later in hospital according to a statement from the local authorities.