30.05.2008

Another crane drops in New York

A Luffing tower crane has come down in New York City damaging a number of buildings, killing two construction workers, including the operator - Donald Leo, 30, and Ramadan Kurtaj, 27. a Kosovan who worked for the Metropolitan Water and Sewer company. Two others were injured one, a construction worker -critically, the other was a passing pedestrian with minor injuries.
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The scene this mornng

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The crane was not lifting anything at the time, it had just dropped off one load and was luffing its jib in to maximum elevation, in order to slew round to lift another load from a truck in the street. There was then a large bang and the slew ring became detached as a weld in the slew bearing suport structure apparently failed, causing the superstructure to fall backwards off the tower.

The superstructure crashed into the building accross the street, wiping out the penthouse and then striking and seriously damaging several apartments below. The Penthouse, currently used as a sales office was thankfully unmanned at the time due to the hour.
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Several Apartments accross 91st Street were badly damaged

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The tower

The crane was attached to and working on a block on the corner of first Avenue and East 91st street on the Upper East Side and fell across 91st street.
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The crane is owned by JF Lomma/New York Crane service, which was also the owner of the Favelle Favco crane that killed seven New Yorkers in mid March. It had been rented and was operated by Sorberg Construction. The main contractor is Leon.D. Mateis Construction of Long Island.

The crane was installed on April 20/21st and was climbed on May 22nd and May 27th both the initial erection and the two climbs were witnessed by New York Buildings inspectors.

Several complaints had been recieved regarding the crane working over the street, an inspection following a complaint on May 20th reported no justification.

The crane was manufacured by Kodiak and is said to be at least 24 years old. Reports we have received say that the slew ring had been repaired and rewelded prior to being put into service on this project.

Local news reports claim that it might have been the same slewing module as one that was removed from an earlier job after cracks were found during a routine inspection.

The crane was shut down twice following its erection, once due to failing an overload test and secondly for an oil leak and broken safety switch.

Kodiak cranes are no longer in production, at least four others are currently working in New York City, they were all pulled out of service this evening while the investigation continues.

This is at least the third catastrophic collapse accident so far this year involving Lomma cranes. The company owns eight Kodiak tower cranes.