Crane Initiative
The Provincial Crane Inspection Team was formed in 2008 with a primary focus on safe erection, inspection, and operation of tower cranes in B.C. The team is committed to inspecting every one of the estimated 300 tower cranes erected and operating in the province.
- Goals
- Approaches
- Deliverables and timelines
- Updates and results
- Related resources
- Related articles
The secondary focus includes inspection of the following construction equipment:
- Mobile cranes
- Boom trucks
- Sign trucks
- Overhead cranes and gantries
- Rigging and below the hook lifting devices
- Marine and foundation construction equipment
- Concrete pump trucks
Goals
The goals of the 2018–2020 Crane Initiative are to:
- Identify and eliminate specific tower crane and construction equipment hazards and unsafe work practices that have the potential to cause serious injury, death, or catastrophic equipment failure.
Approaches
We will work with industry stakeholders — including the BC Association of Crane Safety — to ensure consistent understanding of tower crane and construction equipment erection, operation, inspection, and maintenance hazards with respect to being in compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation.
2019 additional focus
When we developed the 2018–2020 initiative, we recognized that within the three-year time frame we would need to retain flexibility to add additional focus areas. Tower cranes are increasingly erected and operated on congested, small footprint worksites in the Lower Mainland. This practice increases the risk of contact with other cranes, structures, or high-voltage overhead powerlines. In 2019, an additional focus will be on the requirement to address the potential for crane contact in tower crane site pre-planning, risk assessment, and control measures.
Deliverables and timelines
| Activities | Details |
| Mid–Q1 2019 |
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| Q1–Q4 2019 |
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| Q1–Q4 2019 |
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| Q4 2019 |
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Updates and results
As part of our strategic initiative to develop measures to assess the effectiveness of prevention activities, we are providing updates of our High Risk Strategies and Industry Initiatives.
Note: To save space in bulleted lists, our update documents may refer to occupational health and safety as OHS. All references to the Act, refer to Part Three of the Workers Compensation Act. Penalties and warning letters reported in updates may have been initiated by inspections in a previous quarter.