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02.12.2013

Mobile tower crane over in Netherlands

A self-erecting mobile tower crane has gone over in a shopping street in Nieuwegein, on the south side of Utrecht in the Netherlands, no one is hurt and damage is relatively minor.
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It looks as though an outrigger might have sunk/punched through the road surface


The incident occurred just before 8:00 this morning and thankfully the operator was on the ground, and not in the elevating operators cab. He was apparently in the process of lifting materials onto the roof at the time.

The rear outrigger of the crane, a Spierings owned by Nederhof crane rental, punched through the block street surface into a void or soft foundation material.
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As expected the cause of the overturn was down to ground conditions and not spreading the load enough


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The tower came to rest on the building preventing a full overturn.
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The tower came to rest on the building



UPDATE
The recovery was quickly organised and was captured on the video below.

Comments

Why not using larger mats on soft underground? Mats not large enough? Then use two mats next to each other with strong wood on top of both mats to increase the surface or use dragline mats.Be sure that the resistance of the soil is bigger than the outrigger pressure. Thankfully the crane operator was on the ground and nobody got hurt. Love your work but keep it safe guys!

Dec 2, 2013

I wonder what made him choose not to operate the crane from the elevated cab this time round ?

It's going to be a sod to fold that jib back up again now !

Thank God nobody was hurt !

Dec 2, 2013