23.12.2024

Tower fracture proves fatal

Five people died, while four were injured last week, on a job site in the town of Daiwangzhen, Anxin County in Xiong'an New District, around 60 miles south of Beijing, China.

The incident occurred during the night shift on Tuesday, December 17th at around 22:30 while the crane, a 20 tonne Zoomlion T7530-20T, rigged with a free standing under hook height of 47 metres and 75 metre jib, was lifting pile heads, said to weight around two tonnes. The jib tip capacity on this model is 3,000kg. It is one to two currently on site, with another three due to be added as the project progresses.

The crane is reportedly owned by Beijing Tiangongxing Machinery Equipment Leasing and was rented to the main contractor China Construction Eighth Engineering Division, working for the developer China Xiong'an Group Public Services Management Co.

The crane that overturned was manufactured on June 10, 2023 with the installation on this site completed on Sunday December first. It passed its third party inspection the following day and was accepted as good to work by all parties on Wednesday December 4th . Amazingly on the morning of the incident an inspection team from the Eighth Engineering Division, arrived on site and conducted an audit inspection, the two cranes were checked for load limiter calibration and that all safety devices were correctly installed and operational.

In spite of this a preliminarily report says that overloading during night operations is suspected, but it adds that the overturn was the result of a material fracture 200 to 400mm below the first and second reinforced tower sections. The breaks were clean, in some cases smooth and with no sign of previous fatigue or corrosion, which might indicate that some of the steel in the failed tower section was not to specification.

A work stoppage notice for the whole site was issued shortly after the incident occurred, with copies circulated to all relevant authorities and associated companies. This is apparently the third serious reportable incident this month for the construction group, the other incidents included a fall from height which resulted in serious injuries and some sort of crushing incident which took two lives on one if its sites.

At this stage we would like to add a caveat to this report. Most of the information on which this report is based has been provided from a principal local source, which has been supported and corroborated with sketchier information received from another, along with some details gleaned from our own investigations, which include sight of what appears to be the preliminary site report. We would however be far happier to have received information from a wider range of reliable and known sources than we have so far. Hopefully in the coming days this will happen and we will be able to update the incident further.