The latest casualty of wind farm roads that are unsuited for cranes or big aerial lifts is a 103 metre WT1000 truck mounted aerial lift which rolled as it approached the Gordonbush wind farm in Scotland.

However the lift is just one of several examples of cranes or lifts over-tuning on wind farm sites in recent weeks. We understand that a 250 tonne crane rolled recently on a wind farm in the west of Ireland, with a further three big cranes said to have suffered a similar fate across Europe.

All possibly brought on by the exceptionally wet weather that many areas experienced in April and the start of May.

The truck mounted lift in Scotland was, we understand making its way from the main road to the site to carry out blade inspection work when the road began to subside on a bend, causing the lift to slide into the ditch and over-turn. Thankfully the operator was not injured.

The ground in the area soft, with the terrain consisting largely of peat, so any recovery crane will require a substantial temporary hard standing. We understand that the recovery work will start next week.

While this particular incident actually occured on a public road, the move by wind farms towards narrower/cheaper roads that cannot support the cranes and large aerial lifts needed to service the turbines, was a key element of the recent wind safety summit in Hamburg.

Wind turbine companies attending the event appeared to take the criticism on board, although early reports ‘from the coalface’ suggest that little has changed and there have been some classic near misses lately while lifting large rotors.
Obviously several years of cost cutting on roads cannot be undone overnight and it has yet to even get started. So in the meantime crane and lift companies need to take special care when sending equipment into some of these places. You can be sure that when your machine rolls it will be all your fault and nothing at all to do with the inadequate roads.  Sourcing: vertikal.net

Recovery took place on the 17th of May 2012

A MAJOR operation to recover a 60-ton “blade access” platform crane from a ditch on Brora’s Moss Road yesterday, went like “clockwork”, according to Golspie photographer Peter Sutherland who took these pictures.

Two cranes and two recovery trucks were used to slowly haul up the enormous vehicle, on the back of which is attached a viewing platform used to inspect wind turbine blades. It was heading to Gordonbush Windfarm when it came to grief on the Moss Road, about a mile west of the A9, last Thursday. The cumbersome vehicle, belonging to a sub-contractor called Blade Access Specialist Solutions, strayed onto the soft verge of the narrow, single-track road and toppled over, landing on its side. Fortunately the driver was uninjured.

The operation to retrieve it is understood to have cost many thousands of pounds and involved laying a substantial area of hardstanding on a piece of croft ground on the other side of the road. Workers began the recovery exercise at 9am yesterday and it took until 11pm that night before the truck could be driven away. Mr Sutherland said the two cranes had been parked on either side of the hardstanding, flanking the two recovery vehicles.

Slings, attached to the cranes, were placed round the front and rear of the lorry while wire ropes from the recovery vehicles were attached to the chassis of the stricken truck. “It was really amazing to watch,” said Mr Sutherland. “It just came back over very, very gently. There were no problems at all.” He was tickled to see the simple solution the recovery workers came up with to help slide the truck across the road once its wheels touched the ground.

“They put steel plates down on the road and sprayed them with fairy liquid!” he revealed. “The wheels just slid off the plate and across the road.” He estimated that once everything had been set up, it was only a matter of minutes before the blade access truck was upright again.

And amazingly, aside from a broken driver’s door window, it was intact. However, according to Mr Sutherland, it took practically the whole day to ensure that the engine was in a fit state to drive away.

He explained: “Because it was lying on its side, all the oil would have collected at the top part of the engine which means you can’t just drive it away immediately or the engine will seize. “Once it was back on the ground, they had to leave it for a bit. They then took the injectors out and turned it by hand. It all took time.”

The Moss Road was closed from around 9am to 2pm with a diversion round London Road. Thereafter the road was open with cars diverted onto the hardstanding and round the crane.

SOURCE: TheNorthernTimes 

The boom of a 400-tonne crane being used for work on the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar metro line, veered off the truck carrier it was mounted on, and crashed on a portion of the Sarvodaya Hospital at Ghatkopar on Wednesday morning. 25th of April 2012

Fortunately, patients were shifted out of that section s few months ago. About 20 people in a temple near the hospital had a providential escape because the boom veered to the opposite side.

The Ranchodrai temple, is very popular in Ghatkopar and is frequented by the patients of the hospital. “We get up at 5am for our prayers. Today we heard a massive sound when we had gathered and when we looked out, we saw the crane shaking and then its boom came down on the hospital’s roof. It was a terrifying sight,” said temple priest Gaurav Sharma.

The incident did affect eight cows of the temple, as they could not get their feed which is brought by road. It was blocked by the crane and they could not move out for grazing, said temple priest Vishnu Sharma.

No one was injured in the hospital as the building on which the boom fell, an old ground-plus-two structure, had been emptied some months ago, save for some rooms on the ground floor. No one was at the ground floor as the incident occurred at 5 am. Continue reading “Crane Crash Scare for Ghatkopar Hospital Patients” »