Essex England. The boom of a luffing crane suffered a structural collapse and has been left hanging while crews assemble to disassemble the structure and make the site safe. At this time, high winds are expected so the nearby flats have been evacuated. Given the fact that the crane is not likely to weather vane properly, this seems like a prudent move.
I have only found one picture on BBC's website. Link The details are sparse at this point but it seems clear that the boom is being supported by the pendant. The cause of this accident could be varied. Structural failure due to weld failures. A pin backing out at a splice connection. Side Loading. Operating in high winds. It's a wide open until more details are released.
3 comments:
Crane is a topless luffer by Jost. http://www.jostcranes.de/index.htm. Hydraulic Ram used for the luff so no pendant line. Im in London but don't have any other info.
Thanks Collie. That makes sense with the low counterweights. I forget about Jost cranes because I've never had a chance to work with them. Have you? If so, what do you think of them?
Only operated the hydraulic ram type as in the photo a few times and no experience of their standard luffer type. No work horse by any means and the luff is painfully slow. Second hand info told me of a site that had to organise there daily schedule around a certain radius of the crane as too much time lost luffing. Slew is the automatic braking type. Cab is big, comfortable and spacious with a big separate room for all the electronics behind the operator.
If picked for the right job, will do as good as any other. But as ever, not allot of forward thinking put into it. Crane is a crane when the bottom line is all that matters. Radius, tick, weight, tick. Ok, What's the cheapest?
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