Rigging Safety

A CRACK in a crane at Victoria’s troubled desalination plant forced the evacuation of 120 workers yesterday. The workers were sent home at 2.30pm on full pay after the fault was detected in a crane in the pumping station area of the plant. Thiess Degremont spokeswoman Serena Middleton said the workers were evacuated for safety reasons.

The new transmission tower, built on the commercial dock owned by Superior Aggregates in Michipicoten Harbour, has been given a three-kilometer lift into Dore Lake, where high winds recently toppled the former tower, vital for power from Ontario to Manitoba. A skycrane helicopter, used to replace cranes in hard-to-reach areas, was flown in from the West Coast. It has a capacity to lift 20,000 pounds.

The Liebherr LR 1600/2 crawler crane operated by US crane rental company Bigge Crane and Rigging Co. has been hard at work on a wind farm in Ohio. With a main boom 108 metres in length and a fixed jib of 12 metres (the SL3F system), the crane recently lifted a Games G90 machine housing weighing 75 tonnes onto the top of a 100 metre tower.

A large loader crane overturned in Heerde, the Netherlands today after one of its outrigger beams snapped. The boom came down onto the roof of a house killing one of the men working on the roof.

truck crane overturned in Shreveport, Louisiana yesterday, dropping its boom into the lobby of a retirement home. The telescopic crane, a four axle Grove truck crane, said to be owned and operated by Joyce Crane, apparently had around 30 metres of its main boom extended and was installing an air conditioning unit when it lost stability.

For nearly a year, it’s become a familiar landmark, visible from most points in south Glenwood Springs. JE Dunn Construction’s massive, royal-blue tower crane may be the tallest contraption in the sky. But don’t get too used to seeing it.

If you’ve been keeping up with the latest news and press releases, then you already know that Elite Sales Inc. is constantly introducing new ideas and innovation into the world of industrial rigging equipment.

A lattice boom crane has overturned at the Port of Invergordon in Scotland this afternoon, thankfully no one was injured in the incident.

Salzburg, Austria-based Palfinger continues to make design enhancements to its articulating boom cranes, which are available in North America through Palfinger Inc., Niagara Falls, Ontario. The latest development—High Performance Stability Control (HPSC)—has most recently been added to the PK 78002 SH and PK 65002 SH models, which are the two largest models in the SH product line. The PK 78002 SH has a lifting moment of 74.7 tonne-meters. Equipped with up to eight hydraulic extensions, it achieves a hydraulic outreach of 20.4 meters.

A 500 ton All Terrain crane has overturned at the National Cathedral in Washington DC. The crane a 500 ton Liebherr, the flagship of Maryland based Crane Service Company, had been assisting with repair work on the cathedral from damage caused during the recent earthquake. It was rigged with almost full luffing jib and Y-Guy boom support system and had just placed a load of steelwork onto the cathedral roof.