10.08.2015
Dropped steeple
The boom of a crane removing a 150 year old wooden steeple from a church in Milton, Nova Scotia, Canada on Friday, collapsed dropping it the ground and bringing down the local power lines.
The crane, a Link Belt 8690 truck crane, rented from All Erection was working with a full five section boom plus swingaway extension, and had lifted the steeple clear of the building when it appears to have been caught in the wind a little.
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The crane lifts the steeple from the church with full stick
The crane slewed round and clearly sensing issues with the boom the operator started to lower it as fast as he could, but it was too late for the boom, the fourth section folded close to its base, dropping the load to the ground where it smashed into a large number of pieces. It also brought down a number of overhead lines tripping the power supply to the area.
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As the operator tried to lower the load the boom gave way
Thankfully no was hurt or injured and the only damage was to the crane, the power lines and the steeple, which was the first stage in moving the old church to a new location in the town. Crowds came along to watch the event and a full video was taken of the lift as it happened
We don't know if the load was to heavy for this crane. Let's hope not.I think it's more like to much side load on the boom because of the wind surface of the load. Respect the allowable wind speed on the load charts.
2sleepy4u
Too heavy, you don't know what it weighs until it has lifted off the church. The wind seems to blowing harder at height on the large surface area of the steeple and side loaded the boom. Reminds me of tree jobs, you don't know what it weighs until it's too late. It's really hard to estimate weights of a "one off" item that was erected and hand built on site one piece at a time decades ago. In hindsight a larger crane would probably have done the job but the wind would still need to be factored in to the lift plan.