Cranes are essential tools for many construction projects

I.Introduction 2

II.Roles and Responsibilities 2

III.Safety Plans and Programs 7

IV.Safety Plans: Zones of Responsibility 11

V.Site Planning & Equipment Selection 15

VI.Working with Mobile Cranes 18

VII.Hazard Analysis 23

VIII.Regulations, Standards and Codes 25

APPENDICES

I.Hazard Awareness 28

II.Regulations and Standards 29

TABLES

Table 1 Roles and Responsibilities Matrix 4

Table A-1 Minimum Required Clearances 28
FIGURES

Figure 1 Zones of Responsibility 9

Figure A-1 Power Line Clearances 28

I. Introduction
Reference slides # 1-5__




Key Concept: Introduction

• 
  Significant risk to individuals and property associated with crane and hoisting operations justify special efforts to improve crane and hoisting safety as an integral part of construction site safety.
  

Cranes are essential tools for many construction projects. Cranes have multiple uses and configurations on projects that range from residential and commercial through heavy industrial, infrastructure and marine construction.

Crane accidents cost time and money for a number of reasons:

• 
  cranes are expensive,
  
• 
  loads are often of high-value,
  
• 
  cost of substitute crane service,
  
• 
  project progress disruption, short term,
  
• 
  project schedule disruption, long term,
  
• 
  insurance and compensation costs,
  
• 
  litigation costs.
  

Studies by The Business Roundtable indicate that reduction of accidents and corresponding accident severity lowers accident costs by as much as 8% in direct construction labor payroll.

II. Roles and Responsibilities
Reference slides # 6 - 18




Key Concepts: Roles & Responsibilities of Management

• 
  Safety is ALWAYS from the Top Down
  
• 
  All management & supervisors play specific roles
  
• 
  Contract documents spell out roles & responsibilities
  

Many organizations are involved with crane safety on the construction site. While the key organization is the contractor, many others, ranging from Crane Manufacturers to Industrial Associations are significantly involved. Many of these organizations are not actually present on the construction site. All of these organizations are collectively referred to as "Responsible Organizations". The "Work Performed" is the collective group of diverse tasks that these organizations perform.

Work Performed:
A. Project

• 
  Contract Document. The contract between the owner and the entity constructing the project.
  

B. Crane

• 
  Design. The complete design of the crane and attachments, including supplying necessary operating and maintenance manuals.
  
• 
  Fabrication. The fabrication of the crane and attachments.
  
• 
  Manuals. All manuals for operation, maintenance, erection, dismantling and transport, including load rating charts for all configurations and ground loadings for various outrigger configurations.
  
• 
  Certification (Crane). Required by Governmental agencies to assure that the crane is mechanically and structurally able to perform within the criteria established by the manufacturer.
  

C. Operation

• 
  Crane Safety Plan. The Crane Safety Plan is a compilation of on-site crane operations planned in detail. It is part of the Site Safety Plan and utilizes appropriate elements of the Crane Safety Program and conforms to instructions in the contract documents.
  
• 
  Transport (On Site). Moving the crane within the site.
  
• 
  Transport (Off Site). Moving the crane to and from the site.
  
• 
  Erection. Original assembling and any subsequent reassembling of the crane at the job site.
  
• 
  Use. The operation of the crane.
  
• 
  Dismantling. On-site crane's final tear down and load out or any interim tear down for movement on site.
  

D. Training of Employees of the Entities Constructing the Project.

• 
  Managers. Corporate and site management including project managers, superintendents, engineers and safety personnel.
  
• 
  Supervisors. Supervisory personnel directly or indirectly involved with crane operations.
  
• 
  Riggers. All rigging personnel or personnel doing rigging operations.
  
• 
  Operators. All crane operators.
  

The Responsibility Matrix shown on slide 7 and page 4indicates that there are 13 "Responsible Organizations" that may perform any number of the 15 items of "Work Performed" at any of nine "Responsibility Levels." These combine to make an extremely complex situation. A clear definition/understanding of each of these matrix elements is essential because readers come from various technical and work backgrounds and may interpret these elements differently.

This course will provide the owner, the PC/GC/CM, the crane provider, the crane user and all others involved in crane and hosting operations with the methodology to enhance crane safety on construction sites, thereby reducing or eliminating crane accidents.

Construction site crane operations involve many entities. These entities may never have worked together as a group nor worked together on a specific project. Therefore, establishing coordination and communication is of prime importance.

All on-site entities must have safety programs with cranes being a part of most of these programs. One of the PC/GC/CM's responsibilities is to coordinate these programs and to develop a site-specific safety plan for the project. The PC/GC/CM, the crane service provider and crane user must all know what specific duties and responsibilities are assigned to each. These duties and responsibilities must reflect project conditions so site specific requirements must be addressed in a plan called the Site Specific Crane Safety Plan. The plan shall include elements of the various safety programs and address site-specific conditions.

Table 1. Roles and Responsibilities Matrix

Responsible Organization

Agencies/ Agents

Construction

Project^1

Crane

Work Performed

Industry Associations

Professional Societies

Certification (Personnel)

Standards

Regulatory

Service Provider (SP)^2

Utilizer

Prime Contractor/ Construction Manager (PC/CM)

Architect & Engineer (A&E)

Owner (Public or Private)

Crane Owner

Certifier

Manufacturer

Project

Contract Document

G

G

G

G

G

A

p

Crane

Design

G

G

P

Fabrication

G

G

P

Manuals

G

P

Certification

G

G

R

S

p

A

S

Operation

Crane Safety Plan

R

S

a

P

C

Transport (On-Site)

R

P

C

Transport (Off-Site)

R

S

P

C

Erection

R

P

C

Use

R

P

C

Dismantling

R

P

C

The Training of:^3

Managers

G

G

p

p

G

Supervisors

G

G

p

p

G

Riggers

G

G

a

S

S

G

Operators

G

G

a

S

S

S

S

G

^1 If the Owner and A & E are one entity then the owner has the responsibilities of both.

^2 The SP may be employed by the PC/CM or other User. If the SP is the PC/CM or other User then SP responsibilities always flow upward to either the PC/CM or other user.

^3 Employees of either the PC/CM or User.

RESPONSIBILITY LEVELS

A = Action Agent Primary. The organization that initiates the performance of and may perform the work.

a = Action Agent Secondary. An organization that performs the work and passes the work product to the Action Agent Primary

G = Guidance. An organization that provides guidelines, manuals, and/or suggestions relating to the "Work Performed."

p = Primary Responsibility. An organization that is responsible for assuring that certain work is performed.

P = Primary Responsibility plus Primary Action Agent. An organization that is responsible for assuring that work is performed as well as being the Action Agent for performing work

S = Secondary Responsibility. An organization that does not have Primary Responsibility but has a compelling interest in seeing that the work is performed

C = Sets crane capability. An organization that sets the crane's capability

R = Makes rules. An organization that makes rules for various crane operations

Blank - No designated responsibility

Owner’s Involvement in Crane Safety

Owners should recognize that active, aggressively applied principles of safety management definitely impact schedule, quality, productivity and costs. Owners should also recognize that these aggressively applied principals will impact safety. This is supported by research conducted for The Business Roundtable, a group of buyers of major construction services, which asserts that active owner participation in the pre-construction and construction operations results in a three to five fold accident reduction. This reduction of accidents and their corresponding accident severity lowers accident costs by as much as 8 percent of direct construction labor payroll; a compelling economic incentive for owners to demand construction safety.

The owner initiates a construction project and owner involvement and influence must remain throughout the project. The owner’s involvement in construction site safety, and in particular crane safety, begins during the concept or project design phase at which point the owner must instruct the Architect/Engineer (A&E ) to aggressively address safety from the beginning.

Prudent owners establish safety criteria as a part of contractor prequalification. The contractor’s prior safety experience, or Experience Modification Ratio (EMR), the availability and experience of its safety personnel, the overall safety policy of company management and the corporate safety program shall be a part of the construction prequalification process. Many of these criteria will have as significant an effect on the overall project as financial and other criteria which are commonly included in the prequalification process.

The owner must define at this phase of the project what the owner’s involvement in the project will be. Is the owner going to participate directly in project activities, such as on-site meetings, safety presentations, employee orientations, safety inspections, etc., or does the owner intend to rely on monitoring of these necessary processes as they are performed by the PC/GC/CM? Alternatively, the owner can elect to provide third party participants for these activities.

Whatever choices the owner makes, the owner must clarify its position to the construction team during the design/development phase so that a complete, informative set of contract documents is prepared. The owner should keep in mind that experience indicates that the more direct involvement on the part of the owner, the better the financial and accident results tend to be.

The owner must also consider the impact of the construction operations, particularly large cranes, on the facility and on adjacent properties.

Owners shall instruct their A&E’s to include the requirement for a Site Safety Plan into the contract documents and require the submittal and approval of such plans prior to the commencement of construction.

A&E’s Involvement in Crane Safety

Even though we have said that the owner must instruct the A&E to be aggressive in safety matters, the A&E, on the other hand, has an obligation to inform the owner that involvement in safety matters is essential. The A&E must assist in the prequalification selection process to guide the owner. This is particularly true when an owner may not be construction-oriented.

The A&E must also prepare the construction documents to reflect the owners’ choices for jobsite organization and management, particularly with respect to the owner’s choices for safety operations, and crane safety in particular.

As the design of the project progresses and constructability reviews reveal crane safety issues, the A&E must address these issues or include a specific requirement in the contract documents for the contractor to address these issues. The design of the structure and its components can have a major impact on crane safety during construction.

Impediments to Involvement

Even though aggressive involvement in safety on the part of the Owner and the A&E have proven to be of great benefit, both in humanitarian and financial terms, Owners and A&E’s have built-in biases that may prevent these improvements from happening easily. Listed below are some of these biases along with suggestions for overcoming them.

Expensive. Involvement does not come free. Owners must pay for the A&E’s additional effort in creating the plans and specifications as well as any monitoring efforts during construction.

If the final benefit was not far greater than these costs we would not recommend such involvement.

Hard to Quantify. Benefits are hard to quantify and may appear to be non-existent.

The results of accidents from the owner’s point of view can be very damaging because bad publicity is always a problem. It is the owner, as well as the PC/GC/CM, that are in the public eye. To direct the public concern back to the PC/GC/CM requires a costly public relations effort. While property damage is usually the responsibility of the PC/GC/CM, personal liability can be directed to the owner for not providing a safe place to work. The owner is not protected by workers compensation laws as is the PC/GC/CM. The owner's indemnity may be inadequate.

A&E’s Competition. A&Es may be reluctant to suggest safety involvement to an owner because of the additional costs involved. This is particularly true if the A&E’s competition recommends otherwise.

As a remedy, contractors should recite the benefits of safety involvement to the owner and make an effort to quantify it. By not becoming involved in safety, the owner must assume greater liability and cost risk.

Not an Expert. A&Es are usually not experts in safety matters and therefore feel less than qualified in suggesting safety programs.

Following the strategy shown on slides 38-43 on plans and programs, the A&E can take the position that it is the PC/GC/CM's responsibility that safety plans be effective. The A&E is merely using a check list to see that certain subjects have been addressed in the plan and that such plans be monitored for compliance. The contractor, in most cases, is the expert and identifies the hazards. The issue of oversight for compliance does not require expertise, only verification that the contractor is doing what the plan said it would do.

Perceived Liability. A&Es may be unwilling to assume the perceived liability associated with their involvement with safety, particularly when the A&E is less than expert in the subject.

Follow the "Not Expert" strategy shown above.

III. Safety Plans and Programs
Reference slides # 19- 58




Key Concepts: Safety Planning

• 
  Safety must be planned
  
• 
  Safety Program is the corporate philosophy
  
• 
  Safety Plan is the implementation of the corporate philosophy
  
• 
  Site Specific Safety Plan – Start early – Specific to site and job to be effective
  
• 
  Lift Plans: General, Production, Critical
  

The construction operations are controlled by a Prime Contractor, General Contractor, a Construction Manager or a combination of these entities (PC/GC/CM). The PC/GC/CM is responsible for planning, organizing, monitoring, and controlling all construction operations. The contract documents assign safety oriented duties to the PC/GC/CM which shall be incorporated into the Site Safety Plan. It is the PC/GC/CM's responsibility to assure that applicable topics from the Crane Safety Program and the entire site-specific Crane Safety Plan are included as a part of the overall Site Safety Plan, encompassing all project participants. All portions of the Site Safety Plan, which includes the Crane Safety Plan, remain the responsibility of the PC/GC/CM, regardless of the crane Service Provider or User.

Crane Safety Program and Crane Safety Plan – There is a difference!

• 
  The Crane Safety Plan is a part of the Site Specific Safety Plan. It is site specific and addresses crane issues on a jobsite. Within the Crane Site Specific Safety Plan are items which detail “who”, “when” and “how” certain processes are performed, as well as lift plans that describe the procedures to be utilized for each lift.
  
• 
  The Crane Safety Program is a generalized crane safety document that represents long-term corporate policy. It shall reflect company policy for maintenance and use. Every entity that owns, utilizes or has a crane on the site shall have a crane safety program.
  
• 
  The Site Specific Safety Plan is prepared by the Prime Contractor/General Contratctor/Construction Manager (PC/GC/CM) in cooperation with the subcontractors. It shall cover all phases of safety on a construction site including crane safety. The Site Specific Safety Plan must address requirements and concerns expressed by the owner’s design team and requirements in the contract documents.
  

The PC/GC/CM’s Safety Program shall define the requirements for any crane brought onto the construction site. This Crane Safety Program shall establish the criteria for inspection of the crane, definition of critical lifts, lease or ownership requirements and operator qualification.

Multiple contractors, each with their own Safety Program, working on the construction site, need to implement their Safety Programs in a consistent and harmonious manner to avoid overlap, omissions and conflicts. The process by which this is accomplished is the Site Specific Plan, which reflects the overall safety on the site and defines responsibilities for each activity.

The owner and owner’s design team shall require the preparation of Site Specific Safety Plan as part of the contract documents.

The Site Specific Safety Plan reflects not only the needs of the contractors on the site, but also the concerns of the owner and design team. The owner and the design team shall require the preparation of the Site Specific Safety Plan as part of the contract documents. The project owner and the design team shall include in the contract documents specific requirements addressing the hazards and concerns identified for the contractor to document in the Site Specific Safety Plan.
Crane Safety Plan

This section describes management's role in execution of the plan. It is the PC/GC/CM's responsibility to:

• 
  Analyze the locations where the contract prohibits or limits crane operations as well as locations that the PC/GC/CM has determined to be hazardous. Devise a method for assuring that these locations are not used for crane operations.
  
• 
  Establish procedures and priorities for the use of the crane by the various Users. Users who do not have an approved Crane Safety Plan with individual approved Lift Plans shall not be allowed to utilize the crane or lifting service on the site.
  
• 
  Assure that crane Service Providers have satisfactory procedures for the inspection and/or load testing of cranes, both when cranes first arrive on the site and on a periodic basis during the course of construction. ANSI B30.5, Mobile & Locomotive Cranes, Section 5-2, Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance, and also section, 5.2.4, Rope Inspection, Replacement and Maintenance, as well as other applicable local, state and federal standards apply.
  
• 
  Assure that the employees of the PC/GC/CM, Subcontractors and other Users performing rigging and lifting operations as well as crane Service Providers are familiar with proper rigging procedures and that rigging is supervised by knowledgeable, competent persons and that these workers have an adequate employee orientation prior to their commencing work. This should be accomplished at on site meetings prior to start of construction, and as deemed necessary.
  
• 
  Establish well-defined operational criteria and a means of determining compliance. These criteria should include: the effect of weather, configuration of the crane which may be permitted, movement and transportation of loads and other direct operational uses.
  
• 
  Require each User to submit to the PC/GC/CM, for approval, a lift plan for production lifts and the criteria under which these are going to be performed and a separate lift plan for each critical lift.
  
• 
  Establish a procedure for disseminating the plan to all parties involved.
  
• 
  Monitor Users to assure that they are following the terms of the Site Safety Plan.
  
• 
  Review the Crane Safety Program of Crane Service Providers.
  
• 
  Prepare the Crane Safety Plan.
  
• 
  Establish a procedure prohibiting on-rubber lifts and/or travel without a permit and a specific crane movement plan.
  
• 
  Confirm that a Lift Director is assigned and identified for each lift.
  

What is in a Site Specific Safety Plan?

The preparation of a Site Specific Safety Plan starts with the project concept. A listing of hazards and concerns developed by the owner and the design team during the concept and design phase shall be compiled and addressed in the project documents.

• 
  Requirements for access to the facilities, protection of owner’s existing operations, if any, utilization of areas of the property, protection of adjacent property and public must be addressed in the contract documents.
  

• 
  Hazards and concerns of the owner and the design team shall be addressed as part of the contract documents. A specific solution to the hazards and concerns need not be presented, but the contract documents shall clearly require the PC/GC/CM to address each topic. Each contract document topic included in the documents shall include the contractor’s Safety Program topic and generate a Site Specific Safety Plan topic as a response.
  

Lift Plans
General Lift Plan

Lifts that are neither Critical nor Production fall in this category. For example, the unloading of miscellaneous supplies or the delivery of lumber to a carpenter crew are general lifts.

The general lift plan should:

• 
  list any restrictions that are necessary because of weather limitations, time of day and/or temperature restrictions;
  
• 
  require that the weight of the load be known;
  
• 
  give a description of the general arrangement and use of rigging equipment such as "no chains allowed" or "no slings made with cable clamps" or any other general admonition that the Service Provider feels is appropriate to site conditions;
  
• 
  outline the procedures used to assure that rigging equipment has been inspected properly;
  
• 
  req