20.02.2012

Crane malfunction closes streets of San Francisco

A crane failure while lifting a five tonne box in San Francisco's financial district on Sunday, caused the city to close off six streets below the suspended load to both pedestrian and vehicle traffic.

The crane was lifting the box full of components for a window washing cradle system, to the top of the old Bank of America building, when the hoist failure occured. The operator and his crew had no option but to hand-crank the load to the top of the 180 metre high building.
Please register to see all images

The box is left hanging over 150 metres up in the air

We understand that the box was just 30 or so metres from the top of the building when the hoist failed. In spite of that the low gearing of the hand crank caused the job to take five hours, causing significant difficulty below.