October 22, 2014
Ontario

No one injured as huge crane topples at wind development site

Ministry investigates collapse of giant crane | By Scott Dunn, Sun Times, Owen Sound | Tuesday, October 21, 2014 | www.lfpress.com

LUCKNOW – Since a giant crane toppled at the K2 Wind Farm project south of here last week, cranes are being disassembled and trucked from site to site instead of driven there, a K2 Wind spokesperson said.

No one was injured last Wednesday in the mishap that’s being investigated by the Ontario Labour Ministry and the crane contractor. Work resumed on the site Friday, Michael Sheehan said.

The collapse took place at what will be a 140-turbine, 270-megawatt project covering 7,700 hectares that is to be completed in July.

“K2 Wind is in the process of reviewing procedures for safely crawling cranes. Since last week’s accident, the two other main turbine erection cranes are being dissembled and then trucked to a turbine and reassembled,” Sheehan said in an e-mail from the Edmonton office of Capital Power, one of the three wind farm partners.

One of three big cranes on the site was damaged when it fell as it was being driven to a turbine site when conditions were wet, Sheehan said in a statement last week.

That damaged crane will be disassembled and removed from the site. That work should take one week and will likely begin Thursday, he said.

The big cranes are each mounted on a tracked machine which allow them to “crawl” from site to site.

“The cause of the accident is still under investigation and crane experts/specialists from Mammoet are on-site,” Sheehan said by e-mail.

The cranes, each with a 122-metre-long boom, come in to finish assembling each wind turbine after several smaller cranes set in place two of the five sections of the turbine. Smaller, wheeled cranes continue to be driven across the site, he said.

[rest of article available at source]


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/10/22/no-one-injured-as-huge-crane-topples-at-wind-development-site/