Posted on 02/27/2016 8:09:13 AM PST by PROCON
On February 5, a windy day in Lower Manhattan, a 565-foot crane collapsed and killed a man when it struck the parked car in which he sat. Crews had been planning to secure the Worth Steet crane because the forecast projected sustained winds at stronger than 25 mph, but they were too late.
After the collapse, Mayor Bill de Blasio required crawler cranes, the mobile type of crane that can move around a work site, to cease operation and transition to safety mode anytime there are sustained winds of more than 20 mph or gusts of more than 30 mph forecast in New York City. "No building is worth a person's life," de Blasio says. "We are going to ensure the record boom in construction and growth does not come at the expense of safety."
The fact is, though, that deadly crane crashes are far too common. Some of the largest crane collapses on record have the most devastating effects in big cities, such as a 2008 New York accident that killed seven people and destroyed buildings when a 200-foot-tall crane collapsed. Such events highlight the awesome and scary power of cranes, especially in dense urban areas where these ever-growing machines (record-holders now stand more than 300 feet tall, telescoping to more than 500 feet) work right next to pedestrians and drivers. It's a recipe for danger if crews aren't exceedingly careful.
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
I hear that!! I love flying, been pushed out of or jumped from a helicopter on numerous occasions and thought it was fun, but I get nervous on my own roof.
I don’t have a fear of heights, I have a fear of heights from structures. It’s not the best thing for an engineer in the construction industry, good thing I’m a main office guy now.
Only the guy with the white hardhat is not on a platform. And he is on a big pipe.
When I was a kid I use to go up this oak tree that was about 50 feet high when the wind was blowing real strong. It was a riot flopping all over at the top of that tree.
I use to climb poplar trees with my brother till they would bend over to the ground. Then one of us would let go so the other could be flung up by the tree.
I think we are getting old.
As Travis stated above, cleaning the roof gutters makes me nervous when I get close to the edges.
I was once roofing a three story apartment building. My wife showed up so I sat in the valley with my legs hanging off talking to her. The general was telling my wife that it made him woozy to watch me. The part I was on was a 5/12 with a 12/12 reverse so it wasnt like it was that steep.
Yeh I know what you mean. I no longer walk up a 6/12 truss. Cant believe I use to do that. Haha getting older.
Good thing the hard hats on that tower are wearing people. That way, the people will break their fall.
I wait til the sun comes up and dries the roof, and wear sneakers, and still don't like the edges.
roofers have huge ones.
People forget that all the energy it took to bring something up is stored in it.
L
Check out these psycho Russians climbing that building. I've stood at the base of those two smaller buildings below the crane in the picture and they are massive - so you know how tall the Shanghai Tower is in comparison.
I found out that just concentrating on your work takes away any fear of heights one might have.
Then again, when the bucket your working in is swaying in the wind, it does make your butt pucker :-)
That.
No. Good steel is used to build the cranes typically.
Haha that was funny when he grabbed that grate and it pulled up. I wonder how damp those pipes were in the cloudy section.
I would be more afraid of the idiot mudslime police catching me.
Anybody who would work up on one of those things is NUTS! In fact, all those steel workers who work up on those skyscrapers are NUTS too!
I fell backward out of my chair.....
Brilliant! That’s a great line. I’m going file it away in case I ever need to comment on heights.
If you cap blows off, don’t try to catch it.
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