crane operators

As investigators seek the reason for a catastrophic crane accident on the West Side of Manhattan last week, a battle is raging over efforts to change the licensing of crane operators who labor high above the streets.

Following the opening of four learning centers in 2011, Rigging Institute, Knoxville, Tenn., has partnered with more than a dozen rigging shops, rigging gear suppliers, and manufacturers across the country in 2012.

Liebherr Nenzing Crane Co., Ehingen, Germany, has introduced an auxiliary power unit (APU) on all its LR series lift cranes to power the air conditioning. The APU allows the operator to turn off the engine while staying cool, and saves the crane owner on fuel, service costs and residual value.

Operators of the Comansa crane being used on the La Pepa bridge construction in Cadiz Spain have easy and safe access to their cab via a Geda 2 PK crane-operator lift.

Liebherr Great Britain is adding a new Thorough Examination of Mobile Cranes training course at its training centre in Biggleswade, England.

The Bloomberg administration is considering letting operators of giant tower cranes get their license without any prior New York City experience — a sensitive topic in a city where cranes have collapsed and dropped loads of steel near busy sidewalks.

New York City is ordering contractors to lighten the weight carried by cranes across the city on the heels of an accident at the World Trade Center last month in which a crane cable snapped, dropping thousands of pounds of steel 40 stories and crushing a flatbed truck, according to DNAinfo.com.

A man died in New Hampshire yesterday after the scissor lift he was working from was struck by the hook of a crane.

Mike Parnell, president and CEO of Industrial Training International, Woodland, Wash., is the latest in a series of high-profile speakers to confirm their services to MCM Events’ second Crane & Rigging Conference (CRC) Canada, which will return to Edmonton, Alberta, and it will be held at the Sutton Place Hotel on Sept. 13-14, 2012.

The National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators (NCCCO) has agreed that basic electronic calculators can now be permitted for use on certain CCO written exams.