Seoul, Korea A Luffing tower crane collapsed in Seoul Korea killing the operator. No one else is reported as being injured. The 50 meter crane collapsed while hoisting 300 kilo items. Those of us in the crane world know that luffers are capable of much more capacity than that. Even a shock load of that magnitude would not take down a structurally sound tower crane.
It was noted in the article that the cause of the collapse appears to be in the tower. My first inkling would be to look at the clearance of the tower to the floors or formwork. I often run across jobs that have formed so close to the crane that the crane moves into forms. When you do this you create fulcrum point over a small area that isn’t designed to take these forces. Nearly everyone knows that you can’t touch the boom of a crane to any fixed object. The same is true for tower crane masts. Carpenters or other workers often don’t know this, then you have operators climbing on to cranes at the top floor and not inspecting as they climb. The result is the guy at the base of the crane can kill you out of simple ignorance. Climb your crane daily. If it’s too hard, that’s all the more reason to be doing it. It not just about the belly, it might just help you from becoming a carbon copy of this operator. Additionally, dislodged connecting members and lacing failures are items to be looking for during those climbs.
The crane crashed across a rail line and caused major traffic problems as well. That’s two collapses and one lost load in two days. We must be vigilant in continuing to improve.
