OOPS, 8" of concrete deck still needs shoring to hold up a 250 ton crane.

Photo's of the crane accident in Sydney last week.

Incident: Friday Morning 26/09/08 – Castle Hill/Sydney

- 9 Day Old 250t Leibherr Crane (never used before)
- $4mill price tag
- Failure of back propping beneath the 200mm thick concrete deck
- Crane support outrigger punches through slab causing crane to lose balance and collapse across the site and onto adjoining property
- Crane balanced in the air for approx 1 hour before entire rig & boom collapse completely across site and rigs falls through to the basement level.





Tilt Up then fall down. Who's your engineer?
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Wow I would hate to have to call the boss after that darn thing fell thru the cement. Bet there may be some stains some where also. Hope he didn't get hurt. Where will OSHA quit on this one????

Inexperience too with the crane gang. Where I work, we had a dilemma with a furnace that fell, and had to get a big crane in to lift it up and back on a transfer car. That crane was a lighter weight compared to this one. It was at least 100 ton, and many axles as this one, same manufacture too.

Anyhow once the crane got into the lifting spot, big steel plates were brought in for the outriggers to sit on. I always wondered why as it was a concrete slab with earth underneath. I see now why. To give the crane a solid platform to sit on. The crane pictured here just has the outrigger pads.

I think anyone in that line of work with a half a brain could have predicted what would have happened.

kenny b

Had a very similar deal yesterday in Dodge City. I dont know how big the crane was, but they were putting a new AC unit on the roof of the hospital. No bigger pads put under the outriggers and they went thru the drive (6" if I was guessing). Anyway the unit didn't go completely thru the roof but came close and the boom did damage too.

What I want to know is where they are going to get a bigger crane to pull this one out?

We have 7 cranes in the plant right now for this shut down were doin. Largest is 400 ton smallest is 150. All are useing 8'x8' pads made of rail road ties bolted together with 1 1/2" bolts. When these things get under a load it can get scary.