Crane Safety

Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will introduce its new crane safety rules and initiatives on September first. They will include regulations that will stipulate the requirement for a comprehensive lifting plan to be developed and implemented before a lifting operation can be carried out, with an appointed person responsible.

A 60 tonne mobile crane overturned while lifting a large sign at a station in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Saturday.

While the incident closed the station for several hours while the crane was recovered and damage repaired, no one was injured.

Four Liebherr duty cycle crawler cranes, type HS 895 HD, HS 885 HD and two HS 855 HD with hydrofraise, are hard at work in Seattle on Contract U220. Contract U220 is part of the University Link project, a 3.15-mile light rail extension between Downtown Seattle and the University of Washington.

A lattice crane boom came crashing down across a busy road in the centre of Abu Dhabi, UAE this morning blocking traffic for several hours. Local reports say that the crane was working on a demolition site, using a demolition ball, although this has not been fully confirmed.

A fatal crane accident at BHP Billiton’s iron ore operations at Port Hedland in Western Australia’s Pilbara region has suspended operations at the facility while an investigation is carried out.

Heavy haulers have had to invest in new equipment to haul wind components due to their increasing weights and heights. Permitting and regulatory issues continue to complicate matters. Jeff Hampton reports. Transporters of wind energy components are juggling the challenges of carrying ever-larger loads and maneuvering the continued tangle of permits.

IPAF welcomes the position paper issued by the FEM Product Group for Cranes and Lifting Equipment, which states that cranes should not be used for lifting people, except in exceptional circumstances where safety requirements have been fulfilled and undertaken at the specific responsibility of the user.

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.

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.

A crane operator is in an intensive-care hospital unit after receiving an electric shock, when the boom of his crane contacted overhead power lines in Toronto, Canada yesterday.

The man, said to be in his 30s, sustained second-degree burns to his arms but his injuries are not life-threatening.