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08.08.2017

Boom collapse at Swedish windfarm

The boom of a 750 tonne truck crane collapsed yesterday while lifting the nacelle of a wind turbine in Sweden.

The crane a Liebherr LG1750 - which appears to be owned by Polish company Viatron – was working at the Solberg windfarm in Västerbotten to the south of Åsele in central Sweden. It had just started to lift a large Vestas turbine when the boom went over the rear of the crane. Reports claim that the turbine was only a few metres off the ground when the incident happened. We have no feedback on the wind speeds at the time. The only information we have was that there was a loud noise and the boom seemed to “recoil flicking over the rear of the crane”. The crane was working with main boom, regular counterweight and a suspended counterweight at the time.
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The sceneyesterday afternoon


The crane operator was able to jump clear of the crane and suffered only minor injuries to his leg, which were apparently treated on site, two other men on the ground also suffered minor injuries and were treated on site. One of them was taken to hospital for a precautionary X-ray.
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The operator managed to jump clear but the crane base remained stable


The incident occurred around 10:00 am yesterday. The windfarm will include 22 turbines and is expected to generate 250 GW - enough power for 50,000 homes. It is funded by Skellefteå Kraft and Fortum. Vestas and Arise are responsible for project management services during construction.
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The turbine had only been lifted a short distance when the incident occured


Comments

Les
Thankfully there was no serious injuries to any personnel.
It would be interesting to know the weight of the load, the ballast they were using and the radius the crane was at.
When was the crane last inspected.

Aug 9, 2017