This was some ride!!

 

The front left outrigger caved under, allowing the crane to tip. The driver crawled out the top crane hatch. Another worker had to climb back in to shut it down. Fuel, Hydraulic oil, and Engine oil were raining into the clarifier tank. That Excavator dropped over six feet, and missed the guide on the tank floor by scant inches. Talk about "check your shorts!"

 

what is the guide on the tank floor and what is it used for?

 

Dude thats bad, so what the story?

 

He's the poor sap that holds onto the rope UNDER what's being lifted.

 

**** thats bad

 

About 10 years ago I was working for a concrete outfit. We were on a job doing some tilt up walls(8" x 20' x 25' if I remember correctly) about half way through the day some anchor points broke loose and we dropped a panel . It was only about half way up when it fell but it missed me and anoth guy by about 5 feet. Talk about needing to get your diaper changed. I sure paid close attention to where I was and what was going on around me after that
CJ

 

The 50 ton crane (upended) and the 100 tonner that is cut from the picture due to size, were working in tandem to lower that excavator into the tank. The two operators lost radio communication with each other. The 100 ton crane got ahead of the 50 ton, putting much more weight on the smaller crane and tipping the load. The front left outrigger sank under the load shift, causing the 50 ton crane to go up! The excavator missed that guy in the tank by literally inches!

The boom kept it from flipping completely into the tank, but the whole crane was a write off. Bent the boom, broke motor mounts, trashed the hydraulics. After they righted the machine, they had to dismantle the boom since it couldn't retract.

Interestingly, the construction crew is still using the excavator! The 100 tonner righted it, fluids were checked and given time to drain where they needed to be, and some hose brackets were welded back on. They fired it up and are using it daily. Amazing. If it had been a little lower before the communications loss, it probably would have landed upright.

 

On a similar note, about 15 years ago I was working on a high rise condo job that had 2 tower cranes. One afternoon during a massive concrete pour on the 22nd floor, both cranes were hoisting concrete buckets from opposite sides of the building toward the center and their booms overlapped each other. The higher of the two booms load wrapped around the lower's boom and they both free spooled their lines at the same time. Both booms were trashed, not to mention over 2 miles of steel cable. Luckily the concrete buckets missed everyone on the pour area, but there were a lot of soiled undergarments in that crews midst.... The similarity??? Radio communications between the 2 crane operators failed...

Gary

 

Good the tank wasent full, talk about pearl divin as we say in the sewage industry. What were they gonna do with the excavator in the tank anyhow?

 

Apache, that tank had a foundationproblem. This is D-2 Clarifier, one of three originals. When they dewatered the ground to build the newest, D-4, the flow caused a washout under one side of D-2. Naturally, it was full of mixed liquor settleing out, so the tank shifted. Can you say broken piping, boys and girls?? We wound up with some severe underground leaking of secondary sludge return and mixed liquor. SO.......the engineers decided the best fix would be to completely jack hammer out the bottom of the tank, lay new piping, properly lay new foundation and pour a new floor. Add a new tank mechanism, and viola! Like new. I guess I will have to see it to believe it. My opinion of Civil Engineers has been severely degraded over the last few projects I have watched over the years.

 

Pretty interesting. Being in the construction business, I am always interested in Health and Safety topics and learning from past incidents.

 

Man, i know i would have soiled myself if i saw that happen.
Thanks for the story.

Chris