Spruce Grove, AB -- (SBWire) -- 04/23/2014 --On Wednesday morning, in 2013, a father was operating a push truck on Deerfoot Trail in the province of Alberta, Canada, as part of a convoy transporting a crane to Jasper. At some point near the 17th Avenue S.E. turnoff, some of the vehicles struck a barrier. The crane, the trailer it was perched on, and the push truck all rolled onto their sides.
The driver was believed, killed on impact.
Cranes are essential tools for many construction projects. All engineers, managers and supervisors must know that accidents like this cost time and money for a number of reasons. To avoid that, they should devise a plan to ensure the safety of their cranes and employees during operation.
Here are some points given to engineers and supervisors by the Construction Institute of ASCE to ensure safety:
Analyze the locations where the contract prohibits crane operations and determined to be hazardous. Devise a method for assuring that these areas are not used for crane operations.
Establish procedures and priorities for the use of the crane. Assure that the employees, subcontractors, crane service providers and other users performing rigging and lifting operations are familiar with proper rigging procedures and that rigging is supervised by knowledgeable, competent people and that these workers have an adequate employee orientation prior to their commencing work. This should be accomplished at on site meetings prior to start of construction, and as deemed necessary.
Assure that crane service providers have satisfactory procedures for the inspection and/or load testing of cranes, both when cranes first arrive on the site and on a periodic basis during the course of construction.
Establish well-defined operational criteria and a means of determining compliance. These criteria should include: the effect of weather, configuration of the crane which may be permitted, movement and transportation of loads and other direct operational uses.
Require each user to submit to the management, for approval, a lift plan for production lifts and the criteria under which these are going to be performed and a separate lift plan for each critical lift.
Establish a procedure for disseminating the plan to all parties involved.
Monitor users to assure that they are following the terms of the Site Safety Plan.
Review the Crane Safety Program of Crane Service Providers.
Prepare the Crane Safety Plan.
Establish a procedure prohibiting on-rubber lifts and/or travel without a permit and a specific crane movement plan.
Confirm that a Lift Director is assigned and identified for each lift.
Studies by The Business Roundtable indicate that reduction of accidents and corresponding accident severity lowers accident costs by as much as 8% in direct construction labor payroll. There’s no need to sacrifice people’s safety. Remember, prevention is better than cure.
About ENTREC
ENTREC has strategically placed operational hubs that provide services throughout western Canada and the Northwest Territories.
U.S. loads and operations are coordinated from their Calgary location. ENTREC provides a seamless service with capabilities of hauling loads from major west coast American ports directly to their customer locations.
Their vision for the company is to be the premier transportation, crane services and rigging service provider for their customers. Their major customers require on-time and safe delivery and heavy lift services for a range of overweight and oversized equipment and cargo. They believe that their customers prefer to deal with suppliers capable of providing a wide array of specialized and conventional transportation and heavy lift services in order to meet their business needs.
