Safety

This story is about looking at your crane daily. Just because a building is built up around you, doesn’t mean that things can’t go wrong with the crane below. Don’t be lazy, look at the whole thing. A Liebherr 420 in Hawaii, just a few years ago, had an entire pin set (pin and sleeve) back out of it’s hole at the base of the crane.

The 3,250 tonne capacity twin boom Sarens SG120 is now built, erected and on test.

The massive 120,000 tonne/metre heavy lift ringer crane was photographed taking a 625 tonne test load out to 120 metres radius on full main boom – a 125 percent test lift.
The 3,250 tonne capacity twin boom Sarens SG120 is now built, erected and on test. The massive 120,000 tonne/metre heavy lift ringer crane was photographed taking a 625 tonne test load out to 120 metres radius on full main boom – a 125 percent test lift.

WorkSafeBC of Canada has halved one fine and cancelled another from a fatal crane accident in Vancouver in 2008. Andrew Slobodian, 22, was crushed in his cab, when the pick & carry crane he was operating flipped over on the North Arm Bridge in Vancouver.

“Eagle West really stepped up to the plate. I called the morning I needed a crane to pull out a car that had driven into an excavation on a major construction site. When I called, they knew exactly what to do and did everything I asked – they didn’t have to – but they did and they did it fast!”

Leo Pascuzzi, Site Superintendant
Trafalgar Enterprises

Specialized Carriers & Rigging Association (SC&RA) has published its Crane Accident Investigation Guide after two years of planning and preparation by the association’s Crane & Rigging Group Safety Education & Training Committee. SC&RA members typically lift and position oversize objects, often at height and to tight tolerances so the possibility for severe injury or major property damage can never be overlooked

The following example of make-do access equipment was spotted by a reader in Salies de Bearn, South West France. It certainly qualifies among the top candidates for the craziest platforms ever built. Rather than organise a relatively small aerial lift or a proper mobile tower our man has used a stack of pallets plus a small work scaffold that he probably owns and placed it all on the forks of a lift truck.

The tower crane is an important link in the construction process. Even though the crane operator is seated in a cabin high up in the sky, he is still not able to view his entire working area. The visibility problem gets even worse as construction progresses and starts to increasingly obstruct the operator’s view.

On November 8, 2010, OSHA’s update to the Cranes & Derricks standard (1926.400) went into effect. Although some of the provisions have delayed effective dates ranging from one year to four, there are a few important updates that were effective on November 8th.

A strong risk assessment and planning, combined with a sharp operator saved a big crawler from tipping over. The crane, a 1,200 tonne Liebherr LTR11200 telescopic belonging to Karl Hartinger Kranbetrieb of Rimbeck-Warburg in Germany, was working on new wind farm being erected on moorland with a peat bog substrate.

Singapore’s High Court has held a structural/mechanical engineer liable in a civil suit for the collapse of a tower crane that killed three people. Engineer Tan Juay Pah, who is also an authorised crane inspector, will have to pay damages to crane supplier Lee Tong Boon, who in turn has to compensate the main contractor Kimly Construction for the accident.