Raise crane standards

The city is poised to bring licensing rules for operators of the biggest construction cranes into line with the modern age of high-rise building. Go for it, Mayor Bloomberg. Once, New York had a near-monopoly on skyscrapers and the knowhow it took to build them, including megacrane technique and technology. No longer. Workers push ever higher into the sky in every part of the United States and much of the world.

But city rules for accrediting crane operators are stuck in the distant past. All who qualify to operate the biggest cranes — more than 200 feet — do so on a single aging machine on Staten Island.

The feds want crane operators to meet national standards by 2014 and to be recertified every few years thereafter. The city has adopted national certification for operators of smaller hoisting machines. It is time to do the same for the biggest rigs, the ones that make possible such marvels as the rising tower at No. 1 World Trade Center.

The main opposition to the update comes from Operating Engineers Local 14. The union argues that New York construction is so unusual and complicated that the city must maintain licensing that, not incidentally, Local 14 largely controls.

The Buildings Department’s draft plan calls for recognizing accreditation by an established agency such as the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators.

The commission’s nationwide reach lets it keep up with equipment advances from all over the world. Also, by recognizing a national standard as applicable here, the city will tap a pool of operators who can be deployed locally during boom phases of the construction cycle.

The proposed licensing rules take into account New York’s special construction needs by requiring a 40-hour course on local regs and the unique hazards of operating hoisting equipment here.

In addition, the city would require applicants to have three years of experience with the biggest rigs under the direction of licensed operators, including at least two years in New York or another U.S. urban area of comparable density. The work experience would have to include at least 100 crane setups.

The plan makes sense. Let’s build on it.