20.06.2008

Cracks found in another Kodiak

Cracks have been found in the slewing gear of another Kodiak tower crane in New York. The crane is owned by New York Crane & Equipment, the same company that owned the Kodiak that shed its superstructure on May 30th, killing two men.

The crane is located at Washington St. in lower Manhattan, the cracks were discovered after the Buildings Department stopped the Kodiak luffing cranes from working and ordered full inspections.

The inspection was carried out by Howard Shapiro which found the cracks but reported that they were not of a nature to cause an imminent structural failure. As a result, the department did not order any building evacuations or that the crane taken down immediately. It is expected to be dismantled this weekend.

Vertikal Comment

After two fatal accidents this year and accusations of corruption, the New York Buildings department is understandably cautious and will be crawling over tower cranes for some time to come.

A highly intensive inspection regime with checks every few weeks, and tons of paperwork is not a practical way forward, although perfectly understandable given the events of this spring.

The most surprising aspect of this, is that inspectors are picking up items like this after what has happened. While it is easy to be an armchair critic, you would think that after nine deaths and all the uproar in the city, anyone owning tower cranes would have had their own people inspect every crane in the fleet with a fine toothcomb, before the city’s inspectors arrived. It is three weeks since the Kodiak crane collapse.

The one effect that all this focus might have is to clear out some of the older cranes, and jolt contractors into paying a realistic rate for the cranes they rent, rather than selecting their crane supplier by price alone.