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Construction company raises safety standards for cranes

Aug 25, 2008 | Jahna Berry | The Arizona Republic

When the construction industry was rattled by a series of deadly accidents this year, Hunt Construction Group ratcheted up its safety standards for tower cranes.

The Scottsdale-based firm plans to call in state safety officials each time they construct a tower crane on an Arizona construction site, said Michael Gausden, an executive vice president for the company.

The firm tested the policy in July, when it built the tower crane for the $900 million CityScape project in downtown Phoenix. Eventually it could expand to all Hunt construction sites in the West, he said. 

A series of deaths has put the issue in the spotlight. A March 17 accident in New York killed seven people, and other deadly accidents have hit construction sites in Texas, Miami and Las Vegas.

"It was a wake-up call," said Jay Kelso, a 45-year-old Phoenix resident and tower-crane operator who's working on CityScape. This week, the crane is erecting a 27-story office high-rise, one of several towers planned for the three-block project.

Tower cranes can stretch hundreds of feet in the air and are a crucial part of high-rise construction. As the building grows they can transport heavy loads to tough-to-reach high places.

In recent years, the number of Valley tower cranes has increased dramatically because Tempe, Scottsdale, Glendale and Phoenix are rewriting their skylines.

While some states, such as California, have mandatory on-site crane inspections, Arizona does not, said Bill Reeves, a senior safety executive at Hunt.

The Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health conducts random inspections and looks into complaints, said Darin Perkins, director of the Arizona agency.

But the division's 18 inspectors - six of its 24 posts are vacant - are unable to visit each construction site in the state, Perkins said.

"It's a little bit unusual" for a construction firm to call in state officials to go over its crane paperwork, Perkins said of the Hunt initiative. Most firms wait until state officials to come knocking, he added.

The crane policy isn't the only precaution that Hunt has taken with the CityScape crane, Reeves said.

They brought in a brand-new crane for the project and flew in an expert from the manufacturer to inspect the crane after it was assembled. Later, a third party looked over it again, Reeves said. There is also an array of daily safety checks.

Hunt isn't the only firm keeping an eye on recent crane-accident reports. Other companies are paying attention and picking up important lessons. "We watch and of course, there are lessons learned about those crane accidents," said Kent Bosworth, a project director for Sundt Inc.

The Tempe-based firm hasn't decided to revisit its crane rules as a result of the accidents because it has an extensive crane safety program, and it also has a close relationship with state safety officials, Bosworth said.

There was no common thread in the recent rash of accidents, and strict state regulations couldn't prevent them all, Bosworth said.

"Construction is such a dangerous business," Bosworth said. "You can do everything in the world, and all it takes is just one little mistake from somebody and it creates problems."

On a recent afternoon, Kelso, the CityScape construction worker, slowly ascended a ladder that runs through the center of the tower crane's skeleton. Along the way, he checked the crane's bolts and paused a few times to tighten a few.

The stakes for carelessness are high, he said.

"I want to do this for the rest of my life."