Three crane failures prompt investigations
A day after three high-rise construction cranes collapsed atop three separate high-rise projects as Hurricane Irma battered South Florida, assessments were just beginning and answers were still not available.
Were three cranes improperly secured prior to the storm? Could all three have been damaged by funnel clouds? And why were heavy cranes, with movable masts and arms, left atop high-rise structures with a potential Category 5 hurricane projected to strike?
Authorities and construction industry officials are looking into the first two questions. The third will likely be the subject of continuing discussions.
The first two collapses occurred Sunday in Miami. The site of the day’s third collapse — The Related Group’s Auberge Beach Residence and Spa project at 2200 N. Ocean Blvd., Fort Lauderdale — was empty shortly after 2 p.m. on Monday except for two men at the city’s Department of Sustainable Development, also known as the building department, who snapped photos of the damage.
Fort Lauderdale spokesman Chaz Adams said by email that the site was also inspected by the fire marshal on Sunday. “We do not believe the crane poses a risk since it is located over a nonoccupied area. The construction company has a safety officer responsible to keep the area clear.”
The city issues permit only for the platform crane sits on, and not crane itself, Adams said.
Any assessment would be overseen by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, he said.
Contacted by email, Jeanmarie Ferrara, a spokeswoman for Moss Construction Management, said only that “Moss is assessing the situation,” and said she would provide an update as soon as she obtains one. the the
Officials at John Moriatry & Associates, contractor for the Vice apartment project in downtown Miami, site of the first crane collapse, could not be reached for comment Monday. On Sunday, Moriarty executive vice president John Leete said the company believed a “micro-tornado” struck the area and emphasized “all possible preparations and precautions were taken.”
But the most obvious possible precaution — removing high-rise cranes from areas where powerful hurricanes are poised to strike — is evidently out of the question.
“Once you put a crane up, it takes a couple weeks to dismantle and bring down safely,” said Cathy Callegari, a spokeswoman for New York-based Plaza Construction, contractor for the Gran Paraiso by the Bay development in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood, site of the second collapse.
“It’s not that easy” to dismantle a crane, she said. “Only a couple of firms are licensed to do this work.”
Callegari said the three collapses — which injured no one and caused little or no damage to adjacent properties — could prompt a reexamination of crane safety measures.
She said “[Miami] building department regulations were followed very strictly” in securing the crane prior to the storm. “We don’t know if the winds [that impacted the crane] were more powerful than projected. I heard someone say there was a micro-tornado.”
Five days before cranes collapsed, when the Miami was still in the cross hairs of what was then a Category 5 Hurricane Irma, the city of Miami issued a news release with an ominous warning:
“Currently there are 20 to 25 construction cranes in the City of Miami,” the release said. “These tower cranes are designed to withstand winds up to 145 miles per hour, not a Category 5 Hurricane.”
The release said the deputy director of the city’s building department, Maurice Pons, “would not advise staying in a building next to a construction crane during a major hurricane like Irma.
“The crane’s arm has to remain loose; it is not tied down. The arm’s counterbalance is very heavy and poses a potential danger if the crane collapses.”
Said Plaza Construction spokeswoman Callegari, “Do things need to be changed going forward? Perhaps. The construction industry wants to be part of that. Perhaps we need to make cranes differently going forward.”
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