Tower crane are a staple of many city skylines, but there are only a few lucky people that get to operate them. For the rest of us, there’s always Youtube videos.
The video below, uploaded by Travis Lonbro, shows a POV video of a crane operators climb atop a 30 story high crane in Toronto, Canada, and a few snippets of his view of the city. While we may complain about our driving commute to work, it’s nothing compared to climbing 300 feet up a vertical ladder every day. Most crane operators are not allowed to leave their cabs during the entire work day unless an emergency occurs, so at least they’ve got a nice view. As for the restroom? Most of them use empty bottles or buckets.
See also: This Construction Crane Sits 10,000 Feet Above Sea Level and It’s Absolutely Breathtaking
A crane being used to construct the new Tappan Zee Bridge in New York has collapsed across active lanes of traffic. The collapse happened on Tuesday and is blocking all lanes of traffic on the bridge that it was replacing. So far the news outlets report 5 people are injured due to the incident.
Hundreds of news stories have been written recently about the tragic crane collapse in Mecca that claimed 107 lives and injured more than 200 others. The investigations into what exactly went wrong began soon after. On Tuesday, Saudi officials suspended the contractor, Saudi Binladin Group, from new contracts until all legal matters are settled, according to NBC News. Today, Liebherr released a press release statement on their findings after Liebherr crane experts visited the site of the collapse.
Sometimes it’s not enough for a company to tell you how much weight one of their pieces of equipment can lift, so they have to show you. Liebherr, a German manufacturer of construction cranes, did just that, and in impressive fashion, when they put on a very impressive display of strength and engineering as they had a crane lift 3 other cranes at their yearly customer event.
In a terrifying turn of events, two construction cranes were hoisting a gigantic steel ramp of a bridge on the deck of a barge when one crane buckled under the weight of the ramp, pulling the other down with it. The base of the two cranes fell into a canal in Alphen naan den Rijn, South Holland as the booms and ramp completely destroyed several nearby houses and businesses.
If you want to be the envy of your construction office, just show up with this masterpiece! It is a 1:23.5 scale model of the Liebherr LTM 1750-9.1 mobile crane made out of LEGO bricks, and it's not just for show either. It's fully drive-able and controllable with a cab that swings into position, outriggers, and a telescoping boom.
Cranes are a staple on the construction site, but can cause devastating consequences if something goes wrong and they happen to collapse. In the best case scenario, thousands of dollars worth of equipment or building damage is created and, in the worst case scenario, people’s lives are lost.
Anyone who has actually been close to a tower crane hundreds of feet in the air knows just how much they can sway and move. The problem is...how do we measure it?
Seattle is in the middle of a construction boom. With that, comes a series of challenges, such as the struggle to fill jobs, an enormous amount of noise that irritates residents, and even a skyline filled with the most out of any other city in the country. That’s right, you may not have guessed it, but Seattle’s 58 cranes lining the city’s skyline are the most in America currently, with the next closest being Los Angeles, California with 40. Amazingly, 58 cranes is also the number currently being used to build one single project oversees: the new Istanbul Airport, which is currently on track to be the world’s largest after completion.