Crane owners: Let us work when it’s windy

THE CONSTRUCTION industry wants to demolish a new city effort to ban cranes from operating in windy conditions.

The ban actually dates back to 1968, but the suit says it was rarely enforced.

The Buildings Department has announced that changed in the wake of a fatal crane collapse in February in Tribeca.

In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, the group of construction trade organizers and unions says the newly enforced ban on cranes operating when winds exceed 30 mph is hurting business.

The suit says the rule has no scientific basis and is “arbitrary and capricious.”

The Department of Buildings “can point to no engineering or scientific study and no other municipal, state or national regulatory scheme that has found that crawler crane operations somehow become unsafe at 30 mph and, by inference, are safe at 29 mph,” the suit says.

The Worth St. collapse, which happened during 40-mph winds, killed 38-year-old David Wichs, who was walking to work.

The city has been investigating the collapse, but has yet to issue a determination on what caused it, the suit noted.

The Buildings Department said it will fight to keep the regulations in place.

“The city’s crane rules are there to protect people’s lives. Cranes should not be operating in high winds. We look forward to reviewing this action and are confident we will prevail,” a department rep said.