17.04.2008

New York completes tower crane inspection

New York City has completed the inspection of all tower cranes working in the five boroughs two of them had administrative issues while six had serious safety issues, including missing pins.

Five of the six were rectified and put back into service. One crane, the one working on the new Goldman Sachs building, the same crane that dropped a seven tonne load of rebar onto a site office seriously injuring an architect working inside, is still out of service. See crane drops 7 tonne load
The reason given for stopping the machine relates to the fact that it was climbed on April 10. and Inspectors determined that the collar and tie-ins connecting the crane to the 42nd and 43rd floors had not been installed according to plans.

Another crane that failed the inspection was the one working at the Trump SoHo hotel-condominium project, where a construction worker fell 40 storeys to his death after the crane dumped concrete on a shuttering platform causing it to collapse..

When the crane was inspected its beacon light was inoperable and there were hairline cracks in the concrete slab on the 32nd floor near to which the crane was secured. The buildings department had an independent engineering firm test the structural integrity of the concrete slab, and the crane was permitted to return to operation this week. Bovis Lend Lease, is the contractor on that site. See fatality on Trump site