cranes

Firefighters have rescued a tower crane operator who collapsed in his crane cab, about 35 metres above a site in north-east London today. Around 20 firefighters were called to the scene in Hertford Road, Hackney this morning.

A three axle city type All Terrain crane ended up on its roof today after coming down the long steep Ebchester Hill, in the village of Ebchester in County Durham the UK. The hill has an escape lane as it approaches the village and joins the main road – the A-694 – in a T-Junction.

The inaugural Canadian Crane & Rigging Conference opened yesterday to a standing room only crowd. Crane professionals from all the western provinces and many from the United States attended the two-day event being held in Edmonton, Alberta. Most noteworthy was a strong contingent from the oil sands in Fort McMurray, Alberta.

A new double boom system to increase the lifting capacity of lattice boom cranes has been launched by Liebherr in Germany. Capacity can be increased by more than 50% “with relatively little effort,” the manufacturer said.

JPW Riggers, Inc. Syracuse, N.Y., recently acquired a Terex AC 500-2 all-terrain crane to assist with its wind turbine work at the Maple Ridge Wind Farm in Lowville, N.Y. The AC 500-2 served as an alternative to the lattice boom crawler cranes JPW typically uses for wind turbine construction and servicing.

The collapse occurred around midnight, when the crane, located on the site of a new 20 floor hotel on the opposite side of the street from the affected homes, went over from its base. One report suggests that very strong winds may have played a part on the collapse which was clearly casued by a failure of the crane’s foundation.

Manitex is introducing a sleek, new cab for its boom truck line this week at ICUEE, October 4-6 in Louisville, Kentucky. The cab features curved glass for better visibility, a 0 to 20-degree cab tilt, a mini-van style automotive door and sliding windows on both sides of the cab.

US crane manufacturer Shuttlelift has a new series of double-beam mobile gantry cranes. The rubber-tyred DB Series is available in six models, from the 60,000 pound (27 tonne) capacity DB 30 to the 400,000 pound (181 tonne) capacity DB 200. The 140,000 pound (63.5 tonne) capacity DB 70, in standard configuration, has a hook height of 25 feet (7.62 metres). Its clear span is 35 feet (10.67 m) and it is has a 27 foot (8.23 m) wheelbase.

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.