Friday, July 16, 2010

March 27th, 2010

Saransk Russia,  A luffing tower crane tipped, hitting, and wrapping over the building it was working on. The article (video of the crane in article) notes that no one was injured in the accident. 6 cars were damaged and fortunately the cars at the intersection were all stopped.

The second article that I found also has video and can be translated in Google Chrome. This article notes that the crane "cracked almost at the base".

The overall design of the crane is very old. I hesitate to say that the crane is old because large luffing self erectors seems to be the norm in Russia. Inspection is also common in Russia according to some articles that I have been reading. For me it raises the question of usable life of cranes. If the crane was inspected like many of these older Russian cranes, how old does a crane get before you say it's reached it's design life and shouldn't be used anymore?

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