another crane collapse

By texwelder (***)

Date 07-19-2008 02:38

Does anybody know what is causing all these cranes to collapse?

By uphill

Date 07-19-2008 03:07

About 85% of the time its purely operator mistake. The other factor is that there are more cranes working than ever before. With all of the new load sensing technology it should not be happening. I saw a crane collapse once, the crane operator was told the pick weight was 18,000 but in reality it was 18 tons, no-one killed but hundreds of thousands in damage. I imagine that some of the Federally Certified crane operators were good book learners but lack experiance/ so much for federal involvement. Foundation failure is number 2.

By CWI555

Date 07-22-2008 15:12

I am not a believe in coincidence. This was one to many even for believers of coincidence. Sometimes it's a damn good idea to stop think act and review.
Especially when your dealing with something that can cause loss of life and millions of dollars in damage. That extra day saved on the schedule doesn't look so attractive now.

By KSellon (****)

Date 07-19-2008 20:13

a Texan!!! hehe just kidding.

By texwelder (***)

Date 07-19-2008 21:11

looks that way they all fall in texas?

By RonG

Date 07-22-2008 15:58

Not all, just the biggest crain in the world that can make a #1,000,000 pick with over 400' of boom.

By aevald

Date 07-22-2008 16:36

Hello Ron, was that a Lampson crane by chance? It would definitely take some pretty serious issues to topple one of those. Best regards, Allan

By RonG

Date 07-22-2008 19:48 Edited 07-22-2008 19:57

How ya doing Allan? I have not heard the brand name of the Crain but it is reputed to be the "Worlds largest" according to news cast.

We have some Lyondell people in our shop from that plant but they are keeping very tight lipped about it.
Working on posting a photo to give an idea how big it is and the position of the boom to the gantry arms. It looks to me like the boom was darn near verticle when it went over side ways and some what backwards. 2 blocked? to verticle? I can,t place any counter weights and that boom alone would require some kinda counter weight.

Attachment: ktrk_071808_skyeye10.jpeg (33k)

By aevald

Date 07-22-2008 20:47

Hello again Ron, my questioning stems from knowing of a crane manufacturer located in Pasco, WA., they manufacture a mobile crane that is rated at 2000 tons, this is of course dependent upon the boom length and also the lift angle. I have seen a number of their cranes on various construction sites through out the region that I live in, they also transport these to many other sites as well. The story goes that they got their start at the Hanford nuclear site. Originally, when the containment buildings were being built for the reactors it required the erection of the internal portions of these buildings to cease while the roof portion was being built. By developing a large mobile crane system they were able to build the roof on a pad next to the containment building and then when it was already well along they were able to pick it and walk it into position and lower it onto the top of the building, thus speeding up the erection times and also making the build more efficient. I may have short-cut this story a bit, but I believe I have the basis of it anyway. They are indeed huge, I was fortunate enough to have gotten a fairly indepth tour of their manufacturing facilities a number of years ago and watch the course of their manufacture and also see their testing and assembly areas. Their cranes typically have two track-type carriages with a horizontal boom connecting them and then they have a vertical tower extending from one of the carriages which also has the main-boom attached to it. I believe the counterweights are stacked on top of the other carriage unit. They move and rotate by rotating and moving one or both of the tracked carriages. They also have a couple of winches mounted on the horizontal boom section. Definitely be interested to hear more about this one. Best regards, Allan

By Kix

Date 07-24-2008 15:49

All I have to say, is it's a good thing it didn't go over the other way.

By CWI555

Date 07-24-2008 16:13

I understood it was a manitawoc.

By aevald

Date 07-24-2008 17:33 Edited 07-24-2008 17:40

Hello CWI555, take a look at this crane, this is the type that I was referring to. In this particular photo I believe the commentary refers to it's capacity as being 1,100 tons, it also speaks to reconfiguring it so as to increase it's capacity to 4000 tons. Best regards, Allan

By Metarinka (****)

Date 07-22-2008 16:16

texas doesn't required liscenced crane operators

article said the crane wasn't supposed to be doing any work until next week but the engine was on? Maybe someone got ahead of schedule and figured they would do whatever to stay on top of deadlines?

By johnnyh (***)

Date 07-22-2008 16:26

There is no statewide certification of crane operators or signalmen here in Texas.

By Jenn

Date 07-22-2008 16:23

In NYC one was supposedly a bad weld (that's what they said at first, but the piece was 24 years old, can't imagine it suddenly being bad after that long?) or a turntable that was put back into use that should not have been here is an article on that http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/nyregion/01collapse.html# .

And the other was some issues with the way it was strapped (not that I know what I'm talking about, not a crane person) - but in this case the INSPECTOR ended up getting his butt handed to him for not doing his job properly and being quite "crooked". Is the general gist of those two. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,340035,00.html

I think there's so many ways bad things can happen with a crane, bad things are bound to happen.

Improper maintenance, lack of inspection, improper usage, mistakes, and it's just plain dangerous.

When I lived up there, walking under those was a very SCARY thing to do..... things move FAST when they fall from that high.

Hope you at least find this informative. I'm really bored at work today....

Jenn

By Metarinka (****)

Date 07-22-2008 16:41

complacency kills. Sometimes rules and regulations seem overly restrictive and it costs time and money to follow them. But it only takes a matter of time before you get bitten.

Many years back they were doing construction in the pontiace Silver dome, a cement hopper collapsed and killed a few workers. My welding teacher told me the next day a shaken man came in wanting to recertify. He was a welder who had made the support for the hopper and the welds where what failed. It eventually turned out to be an engineering fault. But still I can't imagine feeling responsible for the death of someone because I was cutting corners.