MATT JONES
Port Saint John is already the fourth largest cruise port of call in Canada and a national and international port, handling liquid and dry bulk, as well as break bulk. However, a planned modernization project due to break ground in 2018 will drastically increase the port’s capacity. Ahead of the main thrust of the modernization, two new cranes
keeps his cool
Atight work space and high winds posed a dual challenge for a crew installing a giant air conditioning system in downtown Windsor, Ont.
The old chiller inside the 14-storey CIBC building at Ouellette Avenue and Riverside Drive suffered electrical damage from a power surge in March, and property owner Mikhail Holdings opted to replace rather than repair the 45-year-old unit.
“It was working perfectly but it wasn’t efficient,” Mikhail Holdings’ facility manager Ron Nugent told Crane & Hoist Canada. “The new one will save us quite a bit on energy.”
The project to replace the chiller and rooftop water tower cost nearly $900,000, including materials, hoisting equipment and professional services.
Johnson Controls provided its own branded chiller and a Marley cooling tower, which Peter Goring, project foreman with Johnson, described as fairly standard equipment.
have been erected which will allow the New Brunswick port to serve larger loads from larger ships.
Andrew Dixon, senior vicepresident of trade and business development for the Saint John Port Authority says that due to the evolution of the market, a modernization was necessary to even maintain their current level of business, let alone to expand it.
Entering an airspace not necessarily trespassing, judge rules
Court decisions pertaining to construction cranes and air rights are few and far between in Canada. Developers wanting to swing over-top a neighbour’s property generally reach an agreement with them.
However, negotiations don’t always succeed. Sometimes crane swing disputes end up before a judge.
Legal eagles are scrutinizing a British Columbia Supreme Court ruling last year that appears to toss a curve into the generally held view that trespass laws tend to apply in such cases.
In 2016, Concost Management was constructing a fourstorey building on 120th Street
in Surrey, B.C. However, as happens frequently in crowded areas, the builder wanted to swing its crane over an adjacent two-storey shopping plaza and its parking lot.
Negotiations stalled, injunction sought
According to court documents, negotiations between Concost and Janda Group Holdings, the plaza owner, appeared to have stalled.
The court’s decision to deny Janda’s request for an injunction — www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdbtxt/sc/16/15/2016BCSC1503. htm — indicates a proposed reciprocal agreement would have offered Janda similar swing
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Atruck-mounted crane was front-and-centre to cleanup activities after a transformer fire closed one of Toronto’s busier downtown streets on May 1.
The late-afternoon rush hour was in full swing when plumes of black smoke began billowing from grates on King Street, just west of Yonge Street.
Police weren’t taking any chances. They halted traffic, shut an adjacent subway station, and evacuated a neighbouring building and parts of an underground shopping concourse.
CBC News quoted one nearby office worker telling them she thought it was “a bomb or something.” But emergency personnel quickly determined the smoke was coming from inside an underground hydro vault.
Crews worked late into the night to extinguish the fire and clear the lingering smoke. But two transformers would need to be removed and replaced.
“There’s a hurry-up-and-wait aspect to jobs of this nature. The guys that get these on-call jobs are ready to go anytime.”
—
Shelley Lewis, general manager, Superior Crane Inc.
Superior Crane Inc., on contract for emergency work of this sort, was summoned but had to wait until the smoke was completely cleared.
“The work area had to be deemed safe by the Toronto Fire Department, before we could go to site,” says Superior Crane general manager Shelley Lewis.
The following day, the crane services provider brought a Terex T 560-1 truck-mounted crane. Crews set up the 60ton capacity crane on King Street next to the hole containing the vault and transformers and waited to be pressed into service.
“There’s a hurry-up-and-wait aspect to jobs of this nature,” Lewis said. “The guys that get these on-call jobs are ready to go anytime.”
Lewis said her team is called whenever transformers fail as well as on a more routine basis when older equipment is swapped out towards the end of its anticipated lifespan.
“I was on-site observing at (another) vault fire for exactly the same situation (in January 2013) and the burned out transformers came out in sections,” Lewis said. “So did this one.”
Lewis said crews set up so the boom could reach the transformers from directly over-top the vault. The hook was then lowered and attached to components being lifted out.
“It’s the most efficient set-up,” Lewis said. “It’s below grade, in a vault, so it’s not just moving from A to B. It’s moving everything up and over and onto the piece of equipment that would carry it away.”
Workers are expected to do the job as quickly and safely as possible. “It’s in everybody’s best interest to get the traffic moving again as fast as possible,” Lewis said.
The cause of the fire was still under investigation at press time. However, Toronto Hydro spokesperson Tori Gass said a torrential downpour occurred earlier that day and crews dealing with the fire discovered a significant amount of water in the vault and had to pump it out.
Gass confirmed there were no polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) or other cancer-causing contaminants inside the vault, but said smoke itself is inherently toxic.
The utility has approximately 1,100 hydro vaults across Toronto, with the majority downtown. Gass said these are inspected every three years, and the vault at King and Yonge was last checked this past fall.
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New editor for Crane & Hoist Canada Andrew Snook has taken over from Keith Norbury as editor of Crane & Hoist Canada. He comes to the publication with editorial experience on several magazines within the construction sector including Rock to Road, On-Site and HPAC Snook was also the editor of Canadian Forest Industries and Canadian Biomass. To contact Andrew with your company news, press releases and news of new products, he can be reached at asnook@annexweb.com.
The Ontario Ministry of Labour was called in after a small mobile crane tipped over while working on Ottawa’s Confederation Line light-rail transit project.
The Link-Belt LS-108H-II mobile crane was relocating a small cement mixer from the surface to the base of an excavation when the April 26 incident occurred.
“It was a very straightforward lift,” said Peter Lauch, technical director of the Rideau Transit Group, the project concessionaire. “They were turning the crane and lowering the mixer down into the excavation when it got out of balance and toppled forward.”
Lauch described the procedure, at the entrance of the tunnel at Laurier Avenue and Waller Street, as routine. “We’re typically pumping concrete from the surface to one of these mixers, and the mixer brings it to the required location in the tunnel.”
The mixer landed at the bottom of the excavation, and lateral struts that were supporting sheet piles kept the crane’s boom mildly in check even as the crane tipped.
No injuries were reported. Lauch said the operator jumped out of the cab as the machine slowly began to tip, and spotters had been following proper procedure to ensure no one was working or passing close to or underneath the crane.
“As soon as it happened we shut down the site,” Lauch said. “The Ministry of Labour came, did an inspection and released the site back to us that evening.”
Boom cut to right machine
Crews cut off the crane’s boom and then righted the machine before transporting it aboard a flatbed truck to the subcontractor’s yard.
“It was a very straightforward lift,” said Peter Lauch, technical director of the Rideau Transit Group, the project concessionnaire. “They were turning the crane and lowering the mixer down into the excavation when it got out of balance and toppled forward.”
— Peter Lauch, technical director, the Rideau Transit Group
“The insurance folks are involved now,” Lauch said, describing a day and a half’s work repairing damage to several struts which support sheet piling used to prevent erosion.
The 50-ton-capacity crane is one of many machines working on the $2.1-billion, 12.5-kilometre line. Work started in 2013 and completion is slated for the middle of next year.
Bill Welch, vice-president of operations for Ottawa-based Dufresne Piling Company, which supplied the crane and operator, said the crane was being used in a service capacity to support shoring work.
“We’ve been doing work on different segments,” Welch said, describing the event as a “first in my 30-something years here.”
Asked what precautions Dufresne might take going forward, Welch declined to offer specifics pending the labour ministry’s final report. “That whole thing is being reviewed, so as of right now (it’s) status quo. But I’m
not saying that it’s not going to change … it’s a work in progress.”
In the immediate aftermath, labour ministry inspectors issued a temporary stop-work order affecting the immediate area of the mishap, and asked Dufresne and Ottawa Light Rail Transit Constructors (OLRTC), the lead contractor, for documentation. The ministry also issued orders regarding crane and cement mixer maintenance and usage.
The ministry’s investigation remained ongoing at press time. Ministry spokesperson Janet Deline said all initial orders were complied with and work was allowed to resume using a different crane.
This isn’t the Confederation Line’s first safety-related mishap. On May 2, a week after the tip-over, workers excavating for streetscaping struck a gas line causing a leak. In March, a worker tripped and fell and was hospitalized.
Deline said ministry personnel have paid 142 field visits in response to complaints and occurrences since work started in 2013. The ministry has issued 49 temporary stop-work orders between January 1, 2014 and April 21 of this year — with the crane tip-over occurring a week later.
Union boss grateful nobody hurt
Mike Gallagher, business manager with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 793, said he’s grateful no one was injured in the tip-over.
“Operators are well trained in Ontario to set up a crane and to make sure they know the weights they’re dealing with, but at the end of the day it’s a dangerous occupation where things that are not foreseen can go wrong,” Gallagher said.
Sean McKenny, president of the Ottawa and District Labour Council, said at one point close to a year ago he was receiving an average of a call a week from workers about safety and healthrelated matters such as the hygiene of portable toilets, air quality and dust in the tunnels, and work being done over-top others working below.
Since then, McKenny has met periodically with senior management to relay concerns. “The project today is a tiny bit better,
but certainly at the time there were incredible pressures,” he said, conceding that as labour council president he hasn’t inspected the tunnel personally because that’s the purview of individual union leaders.
Confidentiality criticized
McKenny expressed particular concern that workers are being asked to sign confidentiality agreements.
“I’ve spent years in construction and have never, ever been asked to sign such an agreement,” McKenny said. “It may be the norm on the business side of things, say if you’re working for a technology company and they don’t want you to divulge secrets. But I don’t get it when it comes to a construction project — to me that’s a form of intimidation.”
However, Rideau Transit Group’s Peter Lauch described the confidentiality agreement as standard practice. “Some of the means and methods, particularly in the tunnel, are proprietary,” he said. “Additionally, some workers are privy to the plans of the privately owned buildings to which our stations are integrated. Work is also being carried out adjacent to a new and highly proprietary LRT vehicle assembly area as well as on proprietary train and systems controls systems and as such a confidentiality agreement is normal.”
Asked about the frequent labour ministry visits, Lauch said the number isn’t out of proportion given there are 14 active job sites at any one time and crews are digging a 2.5-kilometre tunnel underneath the downtown core.
“Our safety record is better than industry standard and has been since day one and continues to be,” Lauch said, adding that the complaints Rideau Transit Group has received have been rectified.
“We have a very rigorous safety program and our subcontractor (OLRTC) has safety representatives in the tunnels at the sites…around the clock.”
When completed the 12.5-kilometre Confederation Line will have 13 stations running east-west between Tunney’s Pasture and Blair Street.
“Operators are well trained in Ontario to set up a crane and to make sure they know the weights they’re dealing with, but at the end of the day it’s a dangerous occupation where things that are not foreseen can go wrong.”
— Mike Gallagher, business manager, IUOE local 793
Nelson Dewey has been a prolific cartoonist for over 50 years. If his work looks familiar, maybe you read a lot of car comic books when you were younger.
In the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, Dewey was a frequent contributor to those comics, particularly CARtoons. He also drew for Hot Rod Cartoons, CYCLEtoons, SURFtoons and SKItoons. In all, he produced nearly 2,000 pages in those publications. He has also published cartoons in Cracked Magazine, Oui, Reader’s Digest and Motor Trend, as well as community newspapers and dozens of books. And he shared an Emmy Award in 1988 for his work on storyboards for the Arthur cartoon series on television.
To take a trip down memory lane and see samples of Dewey’s car cartoons, go to his website, www.nelsondewey.com.
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t seems like every major city across Canada has made headlines for having to deal with trespassing crane climbers over the past 12 months.
The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) has been a particularly big hot spot since April, when a 23-year woman named Marisa Lazo – dubbed “Crane Girl” – scaled a crane in downtown Toronto in the middle of the night and ended up being stranded on the crane’s pulley. That incident ended with Lazo requiring a two-and-a-half-hour long effort from emergency services and the thrill seeker up on six counts of mischief. Social media was set afire during the incident, and the exposure stemming from the incident has been blamed as a potential reason for the spike in crane climbers in the GTA since that time.
From May 22 to June 12, York Region’s police force – one of four regional municipalities that make up the GTA – responded to four separate crane-climbing incidents that occurred in Richmond Hill (twice), Whitchurch-Stouffville and Newmarket. In total, there were 16 people involved in the incidents with most of them minors.
According to several news reports on the incidents, the parents of the minors illegally scaling the cranes were called to two of the scenes while the other two situations had York Fire Services called in for potential rescue efforts. Fortunately in these cases the climbers were able to descend on their own without injury. The climbers in all of these incidents were charged with mischief and trespassing charges.
In situations like these, this is a bestcase scenario. And, thankfully, the past 12 months haven’t been filled with headlines of Canadian thrill seekers falling to their deaths. That said, it’s not like it hasn’t happened.
In 2015, Global News Vancouver reported on the death of a man who fell from the top of a construction crane he had climbed. In the report witnesses had claimed that the man had climbed the crane for the purpose of taking photos.
can also lead to project delays due to the site being tied up with emergency services and follow-up investigations.
So, how do you prevent thrill seekers and other people from illegally scaling the cranes?
The best option is to make sure the site is as secure as possible.
In addition to making sure there are security guards on site and that the site is properly secured to prevent trespassers – which most contractors typically do anyways to avoid acts of theft and vandalism – there are some options available.
The Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS), a non-profit organization founded in 1997 in Ware, Hertfordshire, England, by the construction industry to improve its image, posted an article submitted by Kier Construction on tower crane safety based on the company’s practices for reducing unauthorized access to tower cranes on a specific job site.
The practices included the following:
• e tower crane base must be restricted by the provision of a 2-metre (minimum height) solid or anti-climb panel enclosure c/w an access door – this is to prevent potential trespassers from accessing the crane and being able to climb the crane.
• It is important that no materials are leant up against the enclosure as it could be used as a climbing aid for a trespasser to get over the fence.
• During site hours it is important to stop any operatives who are not permitted from entering the crane base enclosure and the mast. e access door is to have a lock, which can be locked at all times – remember to consider emergency procedures, ensuring the enclosure can be opened from both sides.
• Ensure the crane operators walking route is maintained free of obstruction and trip hazards, and ensure the operator can access the mast ladder.
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Of course, thrill seeking isn’t the only reason people have been scaling cranes over the past year. There have been also been reports in other cities where people with suspected mental illnesses have been found scaling cranes. Again, these cases have fortunately ended without a fatality or serious injury.
In addition to the obvious dangers posed to the climbers, these people are also potentially endangering the lives of emergency workers – if they have to scale the cranes to rescue them – and anyone who may be working, walking or driving below.
These situations can also impact the livelihood of the crane operators and their co-workers on sites, since these situations
In addition to the above practices, further steps have been taken to ensure the crane cannot be climbed by anyone, in the event that they do still manage to access the crane base:
• Ladder access hatches on the mast have been tted with locks to prevent anyone climbing up the ladders on the mast.
• Anti climb panels have been tted to the outside of the mast to prevent anyone climbing the structural steel members of the crane.
Hopefully the crane-climbing craze will soon cool off. But for now, just try and keep your sites as secure and inconvenient for climbers as possible in our low-bid world.
Stay safe.
rights should it, too, wish to redevelop.
However, the situation escalated and Janda sought a court injunction to halt the crane. Asserting that Concost was swinging its crane over the plaza property at a height of about 40 feet, Janda described the actions as both a nuisance and a trespass into its airspace.
In his ruling, Justice Robert Crawford agreed the crane was indeed entering Janda’s airspace. But he disagreed with Janda’s claims the intrusions presented a danger.
“The proposed agreement called for a 50-foot clearance,” Justice Crawford ruled. “It is further said there are no materials going over the plaintiff ’s property. The pictures indeed show that exactly. It is simply the boom that swings that is going over their property and not anything heavy.”
Justice Crawford cited a 1990 Ontario case, Kingsbridge Development Ltd. v. Hanson Needler, which found nuisance rather than trespass the key determinant.
“I have great difficulty in this modern age, where construction cranes are all around the Lower Mainland, that the suggestion would be that an unsafe crane would be erected and would put out loads outside the property they are working on,” Justice Crawford ruled. “The defendants are entering the plaintiff ’s airspace, but that is no longer, in my view, an automatic pass to finding trespass and the right to injunction.”
The ruling caught the attention of David Allman, a partner and commercial real estate lawyer with Edwards, Kenny & Bray LLP, and Larissa Dziubenko, an articling student at the time who is now an associate with the Vancouver firm. Together, they published an analysis of the decision — www.ekb.com/no-crane-no-gain-recentchanges-in-the-law-of-airspace-rightsmay-bring-benefit-for-developers.
“Janda Group likely expected to be successful in their claim because, until Janda, the courts in B.C. considered a crane’s entry into airspace a trespass,” Allman and Dziubenko wrote. “However, the court in Janda held that Concost’s crane was a nuisance.”
Allman and Dziubenko described the distinction as important because harm from trespass does not need to be demonstrated whereas a claim for nuisance does require harm be proven, making an injunction more difficult to obtain.
“It’s of interest from a legal perspective because it adopts a view that has not been widely adopted previously,” Allman told Crane & Hoist Canada
Dziubenko, who also participated in the interview, did the lion’s share of the research for the analysis and said there have been few air rights cases in Canada dealing with intrusions of a temporary nature, so there’s simply not much recent precedent to go by.
While courts have generally viewed airspace intrusions as a trespass, the Kingsbridge ruling bucked this trend and found nuisance the deciding factor. The JandaConcost decision, while also validating nuisance, makes it even more challenging to predict where future decisions might go.
“The effect, if any, of the decision is
“The risk of an injunction that prevents a crane from operating, even if very remote, would still be something you’d want to cover off.”
— David Allman, lawyer and partner, Kenny & Bray LLP, Vancouver
uncertain,” Allman said. “This decision might be useful [for a developer] trying to negotiate a price. But beyond that it’s really difficult to say what the significance of the case will be.”
With air rights themselves somewhat up in the air, any party wanting to swing even partly over an adjoining property needs to achieve certainty as soon as possible by negotiating an airspace rights agreement.
“An absence of those rights might be of issue to lenders, or in terms of getting building permits,” Allman said. “The risk of an injunction that prevents a crane from operating, even if very remote, would still be something you’d want to cover off.”
Often, air rights can be included in agreements addressing other constructionrelated needs such as shoring and underpinning rights. “They often go hand-in-hand,” Allman said. “These involve driving anchor bolts into the neighbour’s property, so that’s also something that’s not permitted without a neighbour’s consent.”
Meanwhile, Bob Aaron, a real estate lawyer with Aaron & Aaron in Toronto, says the focus on nuisance rather than trespass ignores the property rights of the neighbouring owner.
“With great respect for the Court, I think the decision is wrong,” Aaron said. “The judge says it’s the boom that swings over their property, not anything heavy, but I beg to differ. And it’s not as if we’ve never had a crane fall over — he has difficulty understanding the risks and danger the plaintiffs are talking about.”
Aaron said the court should have taken a different tack. “A crane doesn’t have to swing 360 degrees. It can swing at 319 degrees or 280 degrees. It can go back and forth — it doesn’t have to go over [the Janda property].”
B.C.’s highest court denied Janda leave to appeal the decision to deny the injunction. However, other judges in B.C. and courts in other Canadian jurisdictions aren’t bound by the decision.
While David Allman said each case would depend on its own unique facts, Bob Aaron said a case based on even relatively similar facts could prompt an entirely different decision from another judge or court.
Nevertheless, Aaron urges parties to negotiate. “My advice is to make sure you deal with the neighbours and make them a fair and reasonable offer for air rights and a crane swing agreement,” Aaron said.
Aaron said he has helped many clients negotiate swing agreements and has never needed to go to court.
“There comes a point where the neighbours say they want more and the builder says they’re not going to pay more,” Aaron said. “The parties decide they’re going to have to settle, and it all works out — everybody’s happy.”
SUBMITTED BY WORKSAFEBC
Since 2006, more than 220 workers have been seriously injured — and 16 killed — by improperly secured vehicles in British Columbia. They occurred in a wide range of industries, including construction, log hauling, trucking and towing.
In every case, workers were injured when one or more of the following precautions wasn’t taken: application of the parking brake; placing the transmission in the manufacturer’s specified park position; and chocking the wheels correctly.
Employers have a legal responsibility to ensure the health and safety of their workers. That means ensuring that drivers do not leave controls unattended unless the vehicles are properly secured. They must also ensure operators are properly educated, trained and supervised in safely securing and maintaining vehicles. And employers need to make sure that braking systems meet all applicable standards.
WorkSafeBC is conducting regular workplace inspections to help prevent serious injuries and working with employers to help address the risks that improperly secured vehicles pose to workers. Some basic guidelines for employers include developing written safe-work procedures, ensuring drivers demonstrate competency in those procedures, providing proper supervision,
and inspecting and maintaining vehicles as required by applicable standards.
Drivers also have a responsibility to follow safe-work procedures:
Don’t leave a vehicle’s controls unattended unless you have set the parking brake, put the transmission in the manufacturer’s specified park position, and correctly chocked the wheels where needed.
Follow the manufacturer’s instructions and your employer’s written safe-work procedures for securing and maintaining vehicles.
Select a suitable location for working on or around your vehicle; sloping terrain and slippery surfaces must be avoided.
Shut off the engine if the movement of the vehicle could harm you.
Report any defects of unsafe conditions to your supervisor.
More information from the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation:
Section 16.36, Unattended equipment Section 16.7, Standards Section 16.13, Braking requirements
“With the changes in the market place and particularly the advent of so much cargo moving over to containerization that previously was break bulk, we saw the need for an expansion in our container offering and our container services, beyond being a niche player, in order to grow and to continue to serve the needs of shippers and receivers who may have previously gone break bulk or that have always had to go out of province or region to a port to access container services,” says Dixon.
• 130ton (118mt) Lattice Crawler Crane
• 281ft (85.6m) max tip height (Tube)
• 44,565 lb (20,214 kg) max line pull
• 536 ft/min (163m/min) max line speed
• 89,000 lb upper Ctwt / 26,500 lb lower Ctwt
• Cummins QSB 6.7 Tier 4 Final
The new cranes are a pair of 1998 Paceco electric drive cranes with a 50-60 ton capacity; depending on whether a spreader bar or a project cargo hook is used. The cranes have an outreach of 145 feet, which allows them to work with 16 container-wide, 6,500 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) capacity vessels which are substantially larger than the average 3,000 TEU vessels previously being serviced. The cranes also allow the port to work throughout the large Saint John tidal cycle, whereas the previous cranes had a very brief window around high tide.
during the Cold War – to more modern cranes took some adjustment for the operators, says Nicol.
“You have to put the booms down, which is a little bit different of an operation,” says Nicol. “It’s similar motions, but different buttons and a different feel for the crane itself.”
The cranes run on rails similar to train tracks, allowing them to gantry back and forth on the edge of the dock. The cranes currently run on 60 gauge tracks, which are
roughly 60 feet wide, though they will likely look at expanding to a larger track in the future.
“Basically, it just allows for more truck traffic underneath the crane and more stability,” says Nicol. “The plan is to put in 100 gauge track and to get one or two new cranes.”
2111-80th Avenue
Edmonton, AB, T6P1N3
1-800-319-7787
Tel: 780-440-4010
Fax: 780-440-4787
Contact: Kevin Maguire
kmaguire@essltd.com
www.essltd.com Western Division
Division
Martin Grove Rd. Toronto, ON, M9W4W3
1-800-268-0679
Tel: 416-249-8141
Fax: 416-249-8912 Contact: Drew Paton dpaton@essltd.com since 1946
In conjunction with the modernization project, Port Saint John contracted DP World to act as terminal operator. DP World brings with them a network of 77 ports around the world and relationships with large clients and container shipping lines. As part of the deal, DP World has already invested $16 million in equipment – including the two new blue cranes, which dwarf the two older red cranes.
“The upper cab is about 140 feet above ground,” says Rodney Nicol, maintenance superintendent for DP World. “In the old ones, it was maybe 80 to 90 feet. There’s a good 50 to 60 feet difference in the height, which is significant. These operators had to re-learn their depth perception.”
DP World trained the operators in how to utilize the new machines. Coming from the previous red cranes – which were built
The modernization will significantly expand the working area of the dock and will expand their deck loading limitation from 200 lbs per square foot to 2,000 lbs. The port’s intermodal rail yard will also expand in order to accommodate the largest single trains on the tracks today at 12,000 feet.
“The majority hasn’t started, it’s in the initial stages,” says Dixon. “We’re engineering and financing deals this year. All the funding partners are in place, but all the engineering and planning and layout and collaboration is ahead. Early in 2018, we’re going to break ground.”
ini-cranes cranes are proving to be a good fit for the Latta brothers at Up & Down Lifting Solutions in Ontario.
The growing company recently purchased four mini-cranes — an SPX 312, an SPX 424, an SPX 1275, and an SPK60 — manufactured by the Jekko Group. They were delivered to the Up & Down Lifting Solutions location near Ayr in southwestern Ontario through Mississauga-based Strongco Corporation, a Canadian distributor for Jekko.
Our eet ranges from self-erecting cranes, boom truck cranes up to 35 ton, mobile cranes and rough terrain cranes.
Jimmy Latta said the little cranes fit into tight spaces, like the inside of shopping malls or industrial buildings, and are adept at handling large sheets of glass. That spells opportunity for Latta and Up & Down.
to almost 28 feet.
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“We had a few others already in our fleet,” Latta said. “They’re all manufactured in Italy. They’re good solid machines. We’ve had them for about five years.”
Since each job is di erent, we o er expert personnel to evaluate the customer's need and select the equipment which will complete the job in the most economic, timely and safe manner.
With its location just outside of Kitchener, it’s a relatively short drive to the Toronto area where Latta estimates his company and its 12 employees spend about 80 per cent of their time. However, the company has also deployed cranes to Western Canada and the East Coast.
“We provide alternative lift solutions and that helps get us in the door,” Latta said.
The SPX 1275 with its 58-foot boom can lift up to 16,500 pounds and, while bigger, it also folds down to get into small spaces.
The SPX 60, another new design, is the big boy of the Up & Down purchases. With a total weight of 33,000 pounds, it can lift up to 13,225 pounds and, with a manual extension, can reach to nearly 90 feet.
Cranes all in the family
Jimmy Latta works with his younger brother, Jeff. Their mother, Liz Latta, manages the office work.
Their father Gary owned and operated Latta Crane Services, a company he sold to Mammoet, a Netherlands-based multinational that he now works for.
“We’ve been in business for about 12 years now. We grew up with it,” Jimmy Latta said.
“Mammoet and dad were into large mobile cranes and we’re in the specialty market, compact, limited-access machines,” he added.
Along with their crane fleet, the Latta brothers specialize in access mats. The interlocking mats are used to create temporary roadways providing access for heavy equipment.
In Southern Ontario, the mats are often used to cross farmland to reach locations where wind turbines are being built.
One can do the work of five
Glass installation, for example, can require a crew of five or six to manipulate the sheets. Using a mini-crane is far more efficient.
“Now one guy can do the work of five or six with the push of a few buttons. And it’s a lot safer,” Latta said.
Latta said Up & Down has worked inside the Eaton Centre in Toronto and many other locations, indoor and outdoor, especially in maintenance. Many of the cranes fold up tightly enough to enable access through double doors intended for pedestrian traffic.
According to Jekko literature, the little SPX312 has boom just shy of 25 feet and can lift up to 2,640 pounds. Like other Jekko units, it’s tracked. Folded up, it’s just two-and-a-half feet wide and just over five feet long.
The SPX 424 is a new model with about double the lift capacity, a similar profile when folded, and has a reach from 8.5 feet
work sites and urban environments. Radio control, full training and cost effective. Axles for on site towing.
ize doesn’t always matter. When a heavy load needs to be managed cost-effectively, a little ingenuity sometimes goes a long way.
Case in point: An oilsands producer wanted to install a 116-foot-long, 900-tonne gas oil hydrotreating reactor. Refineries use these processing units to help purify their petroleum products.
For a lift of this magnitude, Mammoet Canada might normally recommend two crawlers — one with 1,100 tonnes capacity to do the actual lifting, and another with 600 tonnes for the tailing.
However, the economy is tight in the oil patch and Mammoet knew the client — which it declined to name because the contract called for confidentiality — would want the work done cost effectively and would likely award the job on the value of the proposal itself and the schedule.
Because crane costs typically increase with a machine’s tonnage, Shafiul Hasan, a project engineer with Mammoet Canada, worked collaboratively with his engineering team and sales personnel to devise a hoisting plan that would be as cost-effective and efficient as possible. In fairly short order, the client signed off on a set-up involving two 600-tonne crawlers supported by an equalizer bar and a 1,000-tonne J Sticks tailing frame.
“Mammoet’s 1,000-tonne tailing frame is a modular system that can accommodate a wide range of reactor sizes and weights up to 1,000 tonnes,” Hasan said. “Mammoet’s equalizer bar has the capacity of lifting a 900-tonne load and has a swivel mechanism to rotate the load when needed.”
The first step would be to shift the reactor from a horizontal position to a vertical one. Crews used a lifting lug attached to the equalizer bar to connect the two cranes and raise the top end of the reactor. The tail frame, placed over-top self-propelled modular transporters, then supported the bottom end until the reactor was fully erected, Hasan said.
During the tailing operation, crews accommodated the weight of the reactor using the tail frame supported by compression
and tension connections. The tension load was further managed by anchor bolt assemblies secured to the reactor skirt through the bolt holes. The compression load was then supported by the reactor bearing onto the tail frame.
“When the reactor became vertical, the tail frame was disconnected, and two cranes slewed the load over the set position,” Hasan explained. “Using the swivel mechanism of the equalizer, the load was rotated and lowered over the foundation.”
The equalizer bar is especially key in a situation like this, when crews want to share loads between two cranes because lifting with just one crane isn’t feasible due to cost or lack of an available machine.
The challenge with using an equalizer bar, Hasan said, is both cranes need to hoist slowly so the bar doesn’t get out of level. It’s equally vital to ensure the percentage of the load shared by each crane doesn’t change during the manoeuvre.
“The main reason for selecting this procedure was to provide a cost-effective solution to the client,” Hasan said, attributing substantial transportation and rental savings by using a second 600-tonne crawler rather than a 1,100-tonne crawler.
“Our Demag CC 6800-1 was elsewhere, and to transport this kind of big crane is expensive. To find a cost-effective, optimum solution, we came up with the idea to lift the reactor with two Demag CC 2800-1 cranes using the equalizer bar and tailing frame.”
Hasan said there were no serious technical challenges, though the client did express initial hesitancy about the connection to the reactor skirt because the reactor was designed to tail using a tailing lug.
Plan proves persuasive
Crews in Western Canada have tended to use cranes to tail heavy vessels, so the client was initially more comfortable with using a crane for that purpose. Hasan said tailing frames are used more often in the U.S. than they are in Canada, while equalizer bars are even more infrequently employed.
However, Mammoet’s detailed plan proved persuasive. “After we provided the loading on skirts due to the tailing frame connection, the client found the loadings were reasonable and approved (the project),” Hasan said.
Mammoet has used tailing frames often enough elsewhere but only a handful of times in Western Canada.
“I’ve been here more than 10 years and I don’t recall seeing an instance where we’ve done it with two cranes, an equalizer bar on the top end, and a tailing frame on the back,” said Nathan Overell, engineering manager with Mammoet Canada.
The set-up made particular sense given that the 900-tonne lift was by far the project’s biggest, he said.
“When the reactor became vertical, the tail frame was disconnected, and two cranes slewed the load over the set position. Using the swivel mechanism of the equalizer, the load was rotated and lowered over the foundation.”
— Shafiul Hasan, project engineer, Mammoet Canada
“If you were to size a crane for the heaviest lift, it would be well oversized for the remaining lifts,” Overell said. “We knew that a 600-tonne crane was the right size for remainder of the project.”
While the lift charted new territory for many of the players, its intricate planning proved key.
“None of us would have been comfortable proceeding had we not planned it and discussed it and gotten it to the level of detail that we did,” Overell said. “It was something that was interesting to be a part of. It’s nice when an interesting technical challenge marries well with a com-
The lift itself was also relatively conventional. Chillers are typically located either in basement or upper-storey mechanical rooms. In this case, the location was the 14th floor.
To get the old chiller out and install the new one, crews removed a large window and cut a few extra feet of the concrete exterior wall underneath to create an opening large enough to slide the old unit out and place the new one inside.
“There were no doors,” Goring said, adding he’s removed windows fairly often for lifts of heating, ventilating, and air conditioning equipment.
“We’ve had a couple of projects that were quite large and had actual roll-up doors to the mechanical room, and these were a piece of cake,” Goring said. “But on an office tower, typically, minimal thought is put into it. The owners typically spend money on other things.”
The first challenge was securing sufficient space to hoist the equipment. Ron Nugent said Mikhail Holdings gained permission to use an adjacent hotel parking lot because the company didn’t want to block a major artery.
“The whole area had to be blocked off because you can’t have anyone around the crane and outriggers,” Nugent said.
The project timing worked to everyone’s advantage because the hotel was undergoing renovations and was closed for the duration of the HVAC lift.
Good ongoing neighbourly relations are key, Nugent said. “They’ve actually taken some of our spots while they’ve been renovating so we we’ve been back and forth a bit. You have to work with your neighbours when you’re dealing with tight spots like this because it’s give and take.”
Another challenge was coordinating multiple trades. An HVAC lift might seem simple on paper, but this job required a crew of about 20 people from Mikhail Holdings, Johnson Controls, Moir Crane and Dielco Industrial Contractors, the latter supplying radio signallers and riggers.
“We had a ton of different aspects to put together,” Nugent said. “We also had to figure out how to get the crane in and situated in the right spot.”
Several site visits needed
The crane operator, Steve McFarlane of Moir Crane Service Ltd., visited the site several times beforehand to take measurements and help devise a lift plan.
“We ran two lines on the crane and hooked the old chiller with a choker on one end and pulled it out just so far,” McFarlane said. “Then we hooked the second line of the crane to the centre of the chiller to take it out and bring it down to the ground.”
Disassembling some of the old chiller’s components helped lighten the load for the 200-ton Liebherr LTM 1160-2 all-terrain machine.
Crews then raised the new 16,500-pound chiller using much of the same rigging. Because the crane was deemed to have a lifting capacity of 21,700 pounds for this particular maneuver, crews added four-way spreaders to one line and hooked the other line to the chiller’s upper end.
“The challenge was trying to take the two lines up so one line didn’t drop off and damage the chiller while it was going up,” McFarlane said. “It was hard for me to see it, so we had radio communications and I just had them keeping an eyeball on it as I went up.”
Crews worked with the two lines and transferred the load from one line to the other to get the chiller inside the window.
“One was hooked into four spots on the chiller, so it picked all the weight all the way up there,” McFarlane said. “Then, when we got it started in the window, they hooked onto it with chain falls and started pulling on it to pulley it in so it wouldn’t come back out. Then I started coming up on the second line that was hooked to the end of the chiller, and I picked part-way up and then started letting down on the other line, and the chiller just sort of walked its way into the building that way.”
To remove the old cooling tower from a square, opentop cement room atop the roof, crews put nylon slings underneath it for safety. “Because of its age they didn’t trust the lifting lugs on it,” McFarlane said.
Signallers earn praise
The new tower went up in two roughly equal pieces each weighing about 4,500 pounds, and when the lower end was placed on the roof the upper end was set carefully atop and then bolted onto the lower piece.
McFarlane expressed praise for the Dielco signallers because he was working from the crane’s cab at ground level and had no line-of-sight to the top.
“We’ve had a couple of projects that were quite large and had actual roll-up doors to the mechanical room, and these were a piece of cake. But on an office tower, typically, minimal thought is put into it. The owners typically spend money on other things.”
— Peter Goring, project foreman, Johnson Controls
“We ran two lines on the crane and hooked the old chiller with a choker on one end and pulled it out just so far. Then we hooked the second line of the crane to the centre of the chiller to take it out and bring it down to the ground.” — Steve McFarlane, crane operator, Moir Crane Service Ltd.
“We had to maneuver around some pipes and antennas, but the guys on the radio were signalling me really well. It basically went straight up and then we swung it around and brought it down onto the roof.”
Gusty winds added to the overall challenge. With a stiff breeze, crews held off hoisting on the first day. But by the second day the wind’s direction changed and the crane and window were sheltered by the building, enabling the chiller replacement to proceed with relative ease. By the third day, the winds had calmed enough for the tower work.
Ron Nugent, who was present the entire time, said he was impressed by what he saw.
“We hire professionals for a reason,” Nugent said. “It was amazing how they could make that chiller move onesixteenth of an inch when they needed to.”
them. I’ll watch as things dry and get a sense of the stone. Once I’ve determined if it’s structurally sound, I roll them, I put them at weird angles and I start to chalk and draw on them. The first process for me in big pieces is on my big five-foot diamond saw. I lift it on the turn table, shore it, position it, and I start doing my big cuts to whittle it down as close as I can to where I’m going.”
Next, he uses the cranes to maneuver the stone into what he calls his “banker area” where his dust extraction systems are. With the stone in place, he’ll use scaffolding or constructed platforms to access it.
“I like to work with gravity when I’m carving,” he says. “So sometimes the stone will be on its side so I can work for days or weeks on one spot. I have to constantly stand them back up to their final position, because if your eye isn’t careful, you can do things that don’t make sense when it’s standing back up. There’s a constant movement of up and down, left and right, rolling. The two cranes are important to me. These things aren’t rectangular, it’s not like a big block you can put two 16-foot slings on it and lift it up and it’s balanced. I can pull both of my cranes together and put a long choker on one side and cradle the other side and I can lift it and turn it and level or off-level it till I get to where I want to be and then I can shore it up again.”
Rickli has produced large-scale sculptures for a variety of clients, including a series of large works for Cleveland, Ohioarea cancer treatment hospitals, with which he has had a long working relationship. In some cases, Rickli worked with engineers and interior designers to ensure the building could support the sculptures.
More recently, he has become interested in making striking pieces of functional art, such as kitchen and bathroom counters and sinks constructed out of large pieces of stone. He loves the notion of striking, unusual and attention-grabbing art pieces that are still functional.
“I did an almost 4,000-pound giant boulder sink in a small condominium in Oakville,” Rickli says. “You walk in and there’s this giant boulder coming out of the wall, but it’s a sink. It shouldn’t actually be in a home, homes aren’t meant for that. But I knew enough about engineering and working with fabricators that we could design support systems either in the basement or in the floors to carry these things. You shouldn’t be able to have that inside a house – they become conversation pieces.”
The 2017-18 year will bring many changes to the Crane Rental Association of Canada. A few immediate and very visible changes have already begun with a fresh new logo and webpage (www.crac-aclg.ca).
Members of the association who attended the annual conference last June were impressed by the quality of the extended educational program, a result of greater member engagement.
The new Safety Awards come as a response to our ever growing industry and the commitment to support our crane rental companies in their efforts.
By recognizing crane rental companies in their safety practices, the Crane Rental Association of Canada will not only publicize the quality work of its members, it will celebrate their accomplishments among their peers. The first Safety Awards will be presented at the 2018 Conference and will highlight the members of the Crane Rental Association of Canada for their efforts in maintaining remarkable safety standards.
Multiple crane rental companies will be eligible for this award and simply need to abide by the following regulations:
• All crane rental members of CRAC who are voting members in good standing as of December 31 of the contest year and of the application date may apply for the Safety Award.
• All entries must be received at the association office no later than March 31 of the year following the contest year to be considered.
• All information submitted including reports on injuries, illnesses and lost time days will be kept confidential by CRAC staff and not shared with other CRAC members.
• Requested information must be calculated from January 1 to December 31 of the contest year.
• Only companies with statistics for the full 12 months will be eligible for the competition.
• The company shall not have had a fatality in the year of the contest.
• The company shall have a Workers’ Compensation Modification Rate of 1.0 or less and a Total Recordable Incident Rate of 1.75 or less. Entrants must submit a completed application form along with the following documents:
• Workers compensation board injury reporting form for each province the company does business.
• WCB Premium rate report for each province the company does business.
• TRIR (Total Recordable Incident Rate) will be the primary method for deciding award. When calculating incident rate, recordable incidents and man hours worked should be included for all applicant company WCB registrations.
• TRIR = [(number of recordable injuries and illnesses)*(200,000)] \ [person hours worked]
• Recordable Injuries Illnesses is defined as: “every occupational death; every non-fatal occupational illness; and those non-fatal
occupational injuries which involve one or more of the following: loss of consciousness, restriction of work or motion, transfer to another job, or medical treatment (other than first aid).”
• At the discretion of the CRAC’s Safety Awards Committee, entrants may be required to submit verification of their application information.
• At the discretion of CRAC’s Safety Awards Committee, serious property damage incidents may disqualify the company from winning an award.
We invite all Canadian crane rental companies to consider applying for this award. You will be recognized on the CRAC-ACLG website, and you will given a special awards logo to proudly display on your website and company promotional material.
Ted Redmond, Chair – NCSG Crane & Heavy Haul Services Ltd.
Mike Turnbull, Vice-Chair – Irving Equipment Ltd. Ryan Burton, Treasurer - Bigfoot Crane Company Inc.
Sheldon Baker – Canadian Crane Rentals Ltd.
Shawna Boreen – Sarens Canada Inc.
Bill Cox – Tadano Mantis Cranes
Julie Gendron – Grues Maurice Gendron Ltéé.
Curt Jabben – Associated Wire Rope & Rigging Inc.
Michel Riverin – Guay Inc.
Jerry
W.F.
Edmonton
“Our
MATT JONES
rew Carruthers, CM Labs Simulations’ product line manager for construction, has a vision for the integration of training simulators into the crane industry.
“I come from flight simulation,” Carruthers says of his background. “I’ve seen how deeply integrated simulation can get into validating people’s behaviours on real machines – that you can use simulation as a transferrable skill on a real machine. I want that to happen in the crane industry, because there’s obvious parallels related to the safety aspects of it and related to efficiencies and validation of core proficiencies that can be done. There’s just potential that hasn’t been exploited, I think.”
Carruthers says that all machine operation jobs could use simulation for beginner, intermediate and advanced training, re-certification or situational awareness training. However, the use of such simulators is not ubiquitous in the industry, in part due to the challenges in programming them.
“Replicating a machine in a computer with accuracy with transferrable fidelity is difficult and it requires tuning and a lot of patience. It’s a steep, steep climb at the beginning and it needs constant improvement,” says Carruthers. “You need to be able to replicate a lot of the physical properties so that you don’t script it. A scripting event is where you say, ‘I’m anticipating this so therefore I’m going to control the behavior.’ What physics based simulation is replicating is physics in the real world so that you don’t script it. So that the machine behaves like it would in the real world based on the physics and physical properties of the materials that are being simulated.”
The other challenge of implementing the simulators on a large scale level is the high cost involved. However, Carruthers says that the quality of the simulators can be used to save significant time and risk in other areas.
“We feel now that we can replicate how the machine actually feels so that time on the simulator represents a portion of the time you would need to have previously done on a real crane,” says Carruthers. “We are calling it concentrated seat time. If you needed to spend 100 hours to validate yourself on a real crane, if you spend time in a simulator, with this level of fidelity and care in the simulation of it, that you would only need to do a subset of that and do 40 hours on the crane.”
Carruthers says that they are currently doing research with their clients and partners to determine hard numbers on the efficacy of the simulators. CM Labs product marketing manager Dave Clark says that the market de-
mand is greater now than it has been in the past.
“There is a rising awareness in terms of safety culture,” says Clark. “Safety is not just a cost centre. There’s profit to be had there. There’s also the skills gap, which is the critical component right now that is hitting the industry. How do companies hire operators that they know are competent? One way is to train more operators faster. And the other is to assess them faster. Simulators are the ideal tool for that.”
The evolution of CM Labs’ technology will be directed in many ways by their collaborations with industry partners and determining their needs. The applications are not limited to training, however. Carruthers says that John Deere used one of their simulators at ConExpo to demonstrate some new equipment and to allow attendees to try it out, complete with the authentic John Deere controls.
“Customers were getting on to it, not being distracted by the experience of the simulation. They were saying, ‘okay, that’s what a grader feels like. But, now these controls that I’m touching, these John Deere controls, I get your vision of that.’ So they were able to use simulators to sell real equipment because you can get close to the actual fidelity of it.”
Carruthers’ vision for the integration of simulators into the industry would see another key element carried over from the airline industry – using data from real life incidents in order to train employees to those specific conditions. By replicating these conditions, every incident or accident becomes a learning opportunity.
“If there is an accident, why not have everybody learn from that?” says Carruthers. “Not just, ‘Oh, remember back in the great accident of 2005.’ No, get on there and experience it and intentionally learn from the mistakes.”
MATT JONES
irtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are making huge waves in entertainment and gaming. At Industrial Training International (ITI), these technologies are being used to allow trainees to have practical experience without ever actually stepping foot on a real crane. ITI president Zack Parnell was on hand at the Crane Rental Association of Canada’s 2017 annual conference to demonstrate these technologies and to share a glimpse into how they could work within the industry.
VR refers to technology where a user can only see video images shown through a headset, which allows them to look around and interact with a virtual landscape. VR is used regularly for training, allowing users to utilize virtual cranes on a virtual job site, without the risk associated with training on a live piece of equipment.
“With VR, we’re putting somebody in a virtual crane, we’re giving them the muscle memory and that experiential learning opportunity to develop real life skills,” says ITI director of marketing, VR and online learning Pinky Gonzales.
AR refers to technology such as the Pokémon Go game, using a camera to take real-time video and then inserting an image into the video to give the impression that something else is there in real life when it isn’t.
“In augmented reality, you’re literally seeing the real world and then you’re getting mixed reality holograms or mixed reality content over reality,” says Parnell.
ITI uses VR to develop simulators. Gonzales says that simulators as we know them today come from a long lineage of computer-assisted learning going back to the 1950s. At that time, operators would have a television screen in front of them with levers, knobs and pulleys to give the trainee a sense of control and movement.
“In the early days, this was a very rudimentary experience,” says Gonzales. “But the concept has been consistent throughout, which is that we not only learn better by doing something – as you would through role play or other forms of putting yourself in the position of that experience that you’re trying to learn from – but to physically interact with these machines helps us develop actual muscle memory. When we’re in a mission critical situation, the more instinctual those actions are the faster and better your performance is likely to be.”
The current generation of VR hardware hit the market last summer, providing drastically improved resolution, tracking capability, precision and immersion compared to anything that came before, and at a very affordable price point. VR has limited applications in the field – although Parnell did note in his presentation the possibility of remote operations of cranes.
AR has much more potential for practical applications on the job site as you can provide an employee much more informa-
Virtual reality and augmented reality have the potential to revolutionize the industry
tion than what is in front of their eyes.
The most likely scenario described by Parnell is a technician doing repairs in the field, with a headset that overlays important information about the job into his heads-up display. The headset could even connect the technician to subject matter experts who could advise or observe.
“It’s interesting, because that hardware has already existed,” says Parnell. “A lot of people have iPads and iPhones. So would that user eventually be able to hold an iPhone up against a crane’s engine compartment to help that maintenance mechanic troubleshoot correctly? That’s going to be much more possible. Right now, those jobs are being accomplished with a simple checklist.”
As the technology is just leaping forward, AR is in a more experimental mode. Apple recently announced ARKit, a developer kit for spatially aware AR capabilities far beyond current standards (i.e. Pokémon Go). Instead of simply placing an image on the screen, users will be able to see an object physically planted on something and will be able to move around it. However, placing the AR capabilities into a headset to keep the hands free really opens up the possibilities.
“That kind of capability, now we’re really cooking with gas,” says Gonzales. “So a tech in the field might be able to repair a piece of equipment while having this heads-up assistance in front of them – where a lever might be or which wire to pull.”
Full deployment of AR into the workforce is currently held back by the cost of the equipment and certain technical limitations (the holograms don’t work very well in sunlight with current technology, for example). The processing power required for current operations also exceeds current capabilities for practical uses.
“It’s very promising, but there’s still some work to be done by the hardware companies to get it to a point where it really has the ability to deliver an experience that’s going to be worth the cost of investing in the hardware and software involved,” says Gonzales.
But when the technology becomes more cost effective and those technical limitations have been exceeded, the impacts of VR and AR on the industry will be limited only by the imagination.
Millennials, fairly or not, have a reputation. The generation born between the years of 1982 and 2004 are often criticized as being flighty and lazy, lacking in the dedication and industriousness of previous generations. As such, for many employers, hiring a Millennial can seem like a potentially frustrating task. However, consultant Bruce Mayhew believes that there are many viable employees for almost any type of job within the Millennial generation – it just might require some different approaches. Mayhew recently offered training on this topic to the attendees of the Crane Rental Association of Canada’s 2017 conference in Saint Andrews, N.B. Mayhew spent years working for Scotiabank in marketing and developing training skills. Eventually he launched his own marketing and consulting company offering training in time management, having difficult conversations with employees, and managing generational differences. The latter is becoming increasingly important in a job market with Baby Boomers, Generation-Xers and Millennials all trying to co-exist.
“It’s one of the biggest challenges I think businesses are having these days – how to work with three different generations in the market all at once,” says Mayhew. “Baby Boomers have always had to talk to people who were other Boomers, so they’ve always talked to people who were motivated just the way that they were. They were brought up, for the most part, just the way they were. Now, they’re having to talk to somebody who is different from them.”
There were fewer issues between Baby Boomers and Generation X in the workplace – Gen-X are a much smaller population and were in many ways assimilated into the Baby Boomers. However, Millennials are another huge population like Baby Boomers. And, as society and childrearing techniques have advanced, most Millennials were raised to participate fully and to voice their opinions.
“Frankly, Boomers are getting exactly what they asked for,” says Mayhew. “Boomers and older Gen-Xers are Millennials’ parents. And they’re the ones that told their child never to compromise and always be out there. Millennials are acting just the way that their Boomer parents told them to. The challenge is that now they’re not at home anymore, they’re in a work environment.”
This does not mean that the generations are at an impasse for working together. Mayhew suggests that the issue is motivation – not that Millennials lack motivation, but that they need to be motivated in a different fashion.
“Set up the expectations that you want,” says Mayhew. “Set up for the behaviour that you want. This is good, this is not good. Here are the parameters of our hours. Set up all of the expectations. But not only here’s the rules, but this is why this rule is here. From a Millennial perspective, they need to know the why. They need to know the why because they’ve been asking why their whole life.”
Once you’ve set up the expectations, proper feedback is crucial. Employers should listen to their Millennial employees, let them know that they’re contributing and give credit when they’ve done a good job. But that ongoing learning doesn’t have to be part of a significant milestone.
“Boomers are used to the big milestones,” says Mayhew. “Millennials don’t see milestones the same way. Meeting a whole new team, going to a meeting with a bunch of
people that they’ve never been to before, and being able to see what the marketing department is doing, if you’re sales, is actually a turn-on for them – experiencing new people, going to new places, doing new things, going to a trade show. Most boomers, when you get down to it, despise the idea of going to a trade show. Millennials are going to love it because they’ve never been there yet. Always give them new things to experience, but they can be very small things.”
Hiring the right employee, from any generation, is crucial. Mayhew suggests that it is as important for a company to hire employees with corresponding values as it is to hire those with the proper skill sets. Much of the technical ability required to perform a job can be taught, but a sense of empathy or a collaborative spirit, for example, cannot. Mayhew gives the example of an accounting firm – you’ll need to hire a chartered professional accountant (CPA), but if you’re a smaller organization you’ll want a CPA whose values indicate that they will be loyal to the company and stay with you.
The real benefit, however, is that all of the recommendations will be beneficial for any generation.
“Whatever works for a Millennial will actually work really well for a Boomer,” says Mayhew. “Who doesn’t like to be told that they did a good job? ‘Wow, Bruce, that meeting we were just in, you brought up a really good point about our sales initiatives, thank you for bringing that up.’ Who doesn’t like to hear that? Everybody loves to know that they’ve done something valuable.”
Mayhew grants that his techniques will have to be customized for certain fields – in the crane industry, for example, health and safety issues and a unionized environment mean that certain issues will take precedence over others. However, the organizational culture of the company should be considered as well.
“If your culture is very open and collaborative and you hire somebody that isn’t a team player, you’re going to have a huge challenge. Same thing in reverse, if you’re a place that’s very hierarchical and very linear and you hire a team player that wants to be everybody’s best friend and go out for drinks afterwards. I would say that organizational culture is more important than anything else.”
prepared
Dan Demers suggests employers develop a fit-for-duty program
MATT JONES
The Canadian federal government has promised to work towards the legalization of marijuana by Canada Day 2018. Legalization could potentially mean increased usage by members of the general public. However, crane companies should be very well aware that they cannot simply maintain their existing policies for intoxication on the job site.
As Cann Amm Occupational Testing Services senior manager Dan Demers told attendees at the Crane Rental Association of Canada’s 2017 annual conference, the effects of marijuana are completely different and require a different approach.
environment they are responsible for is both dangerous and complex.”
A different standard is required because marijuana affects users completely differently than alcohol. To oversimplify very complex chemical processes, alcohol acts on the neurotransmitters that communicate between neurons in the nervous system while cannabis acts on the neuron itself, changing the production and regulation of neurotransmitters. As such, impairment is not the only concern. Certainly, a visibly stoned employee should not be allowed to operate a crane, but an employee who smoked the night before may still have their brain functions altered, even if they don’t perceive any lingering effects. In short, the effects of marijuana last much longer than the actual high.
“An employer should really take a position that in their particular industry, they will not accept recreational use at any point.” – Dan Demers, senior manager of strategic business development, Cann Amm Occupational Testing Services.
“The scientific research and both Canadian and international authorities have made it abundantly clear employers should not support allowing cannabis use – even off the job – and complex dangerous work to mix for any reason,” says Demers. “As an employer that is trying to be careful about workplace safety, it would be counterproductive to allow any cannabis use, on or off the job, when their work
“Cannabis is not like alcohol, the neurocognitive disruption that is concerning for complex and dangerous environments can last well over 24 hours according to Health Canada and the World Health Organization,” says Demers.
Demers acknowledges that current science does not understand the elimination of cannabinoids from the system in the same way that we use Michaelis-Menten kinetics to understand the elimination curve of alcohol.
When marijuana is legalized, Canada will establish a standard for impairment for testing on public roadways. However, keeping in mind the much longer lasting effects of marijuana and the lack of an accepted kinetic formula, employers in potentially dangerous fields such as crane work should hold their employees to a higher standard.
“The proposed thresholds for infractions on our roadways are going to be at a more lenient level than what would be reasonably acceptable for safety due diligence
in a workplace that is both complex and dangerous,” says Demers. “We should not look to our public roadway laws to set the occupational bar. We have never done so for alcohol, as industries act upon a 0.02% breath alcohol concentration, and we expect a lower limit for cannabis as well that is not just focused on acute impairment.”
The answer, Demers believes, is a fit-for-duty program, which includes a policy, training and compliance measures.
“These programs do, of course, cover all of the marijuana considerations; including considerations to current legal access for medical purposes and potential recreational accessibility in safety sensitive workplaces. Employers who believe they can stick with the same approaches to risk management that they have in the past are passively putting a lot of workers at risk, and a lot of the members of the general public at risk.”
It’s important to note that once marijuana is legalized, these policies and programs must be safety focused and take into account the fundamental legal principles related to privacy of information, human rights and labour laws – for example, administrators and marketers and accountants who work in an office off site from actual safety-sensitive work would not be subject to the same standards. Demers gives the example of having a policy requiring all employees to wear hardhats and steel-toed boots: there would be no reasonable expectation for this policy to carry over to employees who work in an office setting.
Crane companies should start having conversations about these topics very soon, in order to be prepared for marijuana legalization.
“We must not forget that many workers die each year due to preventable workplace tragedies and these tragedies carry a tremendous burden on the families and communities in which they come from,” says Demers. “It would follow that Canadians seeking the liberty to access cannabis lawfully should also support employers living up to their legal obligations to protect their workforce, the public and the environment.”
MATT JONES
he addition of an overhead crane has paid dividends for a Dartmouth, N.S. machine shop. When Ace Machining outgrew its previous home base, the owners had a new 14,500-sq.-ft. facility built to their specifications, including the installation of a Yale Global King
electric wire overhead hoist. Co-owner and co-operator Ron Wallace says that the new facilities and the new crane have not only provided the company with breathing room, but have allowed the business to grow.
“Before this we had 3,800 square feet and we were kind of bursting at the seams,” says Wallace. “We’d spend an hour at the start of the day moving stuff in the parking
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lot before we get started and an hour at the end of the day putting it back in. When we designed this one, we wanted it long and narrow. It’s 60 feet by 240 feet and we were adamant that we have an overhead crane running the entire length that traversed everywhere. Since moving in here, we’ve hired seven new employees. The growth has been fantastic.”
Ace Machining often work with large deliveries of metal, either in 20-foot lengths of round bar or in plate form. In the previous shop, unloading was a process that involved up to five employees carrying the metal on their shoulders. Actually maneuvering the metal in and out of the various machines was usually a multi-man job as well.
ity crane would remain near the rear of the shop with a newer, likely 5-tonne capacity crane in front to help with smaller and lighter lifts. In the meantime, Wallace recognizes how much benefit the current crane has brought the company and is doing his best to ensure it stays in action for a long time.
“We keep everybody here trained up,” says Wallace. “We try to make sure all our lifts are straight up and down. Make sure the crane is all the way up before you traverse the room. We want the crane to last us a long time, so we stay up on the maintenance and training the guys.”
“Now one guy grabs the crane, lifts it up and we move it over to the side,” says Wallace. “Same thing if a plate comes in; magnet and pull the plate off of it. We’ll load a lot of heavy round shafts in and out of lathes. We use the crane a lot for changing the chucks on the lathe. We came up with our own design for a “chuck-pickerupper” that you can mount in the chuck, tighten the chuck up on it, bring the crane down, grab the eyelet in it and pull it off and put it on the stand. I feel it’s one of our best investments, that crane.”
Wallace says that he could see the company adding a second crane in time – there is room in their new facility for another. At that time, the current 10-tonne capac-
Wallace can’t imagine going back to the way Ace Machining used to do things. While he feels they were always safe, employees lifting large loads always carries a risk of injury. And from a productivity standpoint, when every operation could require 20 minutes of assistance from one or two other employees, that means each operation by one employee might cost 40 minutes of lost production from two others.
“Over the course of a year it adds up. The crane won’t pay for itself right away, but it certainly will in time,” says Wallace. “I couldn’t live without it. We’re certainly spoiled now.”
BY SAUL CHERNOS
An investigation is underway after a worker was killed in a cranerelated mishap at a Kamloops, B.C. pulp mill on June 29.
James (Jim) Macleod succumbed to injuries sustained in an incident involving a crane, according to a statement by Unifor, the union representing workers at the plant.
“Nobody should lose their life while trying to earn a living,” Unifor National president Jerry Dias said in the union statement.
Ross Thompson, a co-worker, was injured in the same incident, and Unifor said he was recuperating at home.
Domtar would not discuss the nature of the incident.
“Since this is a highly confidential and tragic situation, we are not commenting any further on the Kamloops
accident,” said Craig Timm, Domtar’ s manager of regional public affairs.
Vinay Sharma, a national staff representative with the health and safety department at Unifor told Crane & Hoist Canada that he had no specific information about what happened. However, he said he expects information about the incident to be made public when WorkSafeBC, an agency affiliated with the Workers’ Compensation Board of British Columbia, concludes its investigation.
“Our union takes this very seriously,” Sharma said. “Both sides are cooperating very well, and we’re trying to find out what happened so we can learn from it.” Macleod, 57, had worked at the mill for 37 years. According to his LinkedIn profile, he was a crane and heavy equipment operator and a 4th class power engineer at Domtar.
he new Demag PC 3800-1 Pedestal Crane offers extended possibilities in lifting performance and lifting abilities. It provides access to jobsites previously not reachable with a standard crawler model, according a recent company release. The PC 3800-1 boasts strong load charts, especially with main boom only configurations, helps reducing ground preparation and is easy to transport.
Applying the PC 3800-1 can significantly reduce the amount of time needed to prepare a jobsite for crane operation. Typically crawler cranes require an adequately levelled supporting ground (slope of 0° - 0.3°) over a large area to achieve the nominal lifting capacity leading to extensive ground preparation prior to the lift job. In contrast, the PC 3800-1 only needs four spots to be prepared for the outrigger supports which do not need to be perfectly levelled as the outrigger cylinders can compensate some tolerance on the ground’s flatness — up to 2.1° with a 12 x 12 m (39.4 x 39.4 ft) outrigger base. On top of this, existing pile foundations can be used as outrigger supports for the PC 3800-1 when providing sufficient stability. This setup makes the PC 3800-1 especially beneficial on jobsites where ground layout and structure are already existing, which is often the case on harbour quays and refineries, as well as when installing bridges from river banks.
The new PC 3800-1 pedestal crane features hydraulic extendable and foldable outriggers that can be positioned at 12 x 12 m (39.4 x 39.4 ft), 14 x 14 m (46 x 46 ft) with all configurations including Superlift and 16 x 16 m (62.5 x 62.5ft) without superlift, and it offers additional possibilities for long-reach lifts where the lifting capacity of a crawler crane would normally be limited. The PC 3800-1 also provides increased lifting performance in several configurations
or requires less counterweight for the same or slightly higher lifting capacities. Less counterweight means fewer trucks, translating into significantly reduced transportation costs.
For additional versatility, Demag has also developed an adapter to connect the carbody (centre pot) of the crane to a selfpropelled modular trailer or axle lines. Axle lines are commonly found on jobs involving lifting bridge sections, gantries or wind turbine assemblies, which means that the crane can be easily relocated on a jobsite partially rigged, while leveraging the use of axle lines.
Depending on road regulations, the Demag PC 3800-1 equipped with axle lines can be adapted easily to match a 12t load per axle or to have a cross vehicle weight below 100t. This can be done with many axle lines from multiple manufacturers. All a customer would need are axle lines with matching adapters between the carbody (centre pot) and axle lines.
Other optional accessories for the Demag PC 3800-1 pedestal crane include a quick connection to un-deck the superstructure from the chassis and different sizes of outrigger mats.
The PC 3800-1 can be purchased as a complete crane or the carrier only can be purchased as a retrofit option for the Demag CC 3800-1 crawler crane and its predecessor, Superlift 3800. The Quick Connection system allows efficient switching between crawlers and pedestal carrier on Demag CC 3800-1 cranes with or without the Superlift and is compatible with wind turbine combinations, as well as Boom Booster kits.
RS Contractors Rental Supply Limited Partnership (CRS) recently announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell CRS to Sunbelt Rentals (Sunbelt), the North American business of Ashtead Group plc, for $275 million plus a potential earn-out.
The acquisition is the first of Sunbelt’s in Eastern Canada and will become Sunbelt’s operational platform in Ontario, according to a recent CRS news release.
“We are very pleased to be partnering with Ashtead and Sunbelt,” said Steve Fay, chairman of CRS. “Their culture, values and total focus on their people and customers is exceptional, and perfectly aligned with CRS. The CRS partnership with Clairvest Group which began in 2013 has been very successful and we look forward to continuing to provide our customers with industry-leading equipment and service as part of the Ashtead team.”
The proposed transaction is expected to close in the coming weeks after satisfaction of certain regulatory approvals. Catalyst Strategic Advisors, LLC is acting as the exclusive strategic and financial advisor to CRS and its board of directors in this transaction.
Contractors Rental Supply Limited Partnership was founded in 2000 and currently employs over 400 people across 28 locations in Ontario.
he new LC 330US lattice-boom crawler crane from Terex Cranes has a 330ton maximum lift capacity and 1,810-tonne maximum load moment, says a news release from the manufacturer.
“For contractors operating in the heavy civil infrastructure – especially bridge construction – petrochemical, power plant and wind turbine industries, this new Terex crane delivers power, flexibility and options for efficiently completing projects on schedule,” the release said.
with up to 275 feet of main boom or up to 196 feet of main boom with a 236foot luffing jib for a total maximum system length of 432 feet. Standard assembly remote control increases rigging ease. The crane is also equipped with Terex’s fall-protection system.
To shorten set up time even more, the crane’s main boom can be rigged without an assist crane, “free in the air,” with up to 177 feet of main boom.
A new Terex-exclusive counterweight tray design on the LC 330US has a pair of stacks instead of a single stack, the release noted. In addition to reducing the counterweight stack height, this lowers the crane’s centre of gravity, thus improving the efficiency of the counterweight assembly, according to Terex. For example, the assist crane only needs a capacity of 10 tons.
“Crew members can quickly adjust front/rear stack height to address counterweight needs based on boom configuration and according to the load charts,” the release noted.
Engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain teams from Terex’s locations in Zweibrücken, Germany, and Jinan, China worked on developing the LC 330US, which will be manufactured in Jinan.
Self-assembly of the LC 330US crane’s crawler tracks helps to “substantially” shorten rigging time, the company says. The LC 330US can be configured
The main boom sections have Terex’s slide-in system to utilize truck payload more efficiently, thus reducing transportation costs and time. “Transported without restrictions on a standard lowboy or dropdeck trailer, the smaller boom sections are designed to easily be placed inside larger ones for moving to the project site,” the release said. Lifting lugs on the boom section’s lower main cords improve boom-loading efficiency while reducing work at height. For congested sites, available stacking blocks provide safe and easy stacking of boom sections.
The LC 330US’s counterweight slabs are interchangeable with Terex and Demag lattice-boom cranes in operation since 1998 and Demag all-terrain models starting with the AC 500 and higher. The wide Terex cabin offers enough room to fit a second operator comfortably. The LC 330US has two operating screens. One displays engine, winches, and crane settings. The other shows the IC-1 load moment indicator.
For more information about Terex, visit www.terex.com.
MATT JONES
Shawmut Equipment is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. The company was started by George O’Connell in the late 1950’s in Manchester, Connecticut as a construction equipment seller and over time has evolved into a sales, rentals, service and parts dealer, a successful dealer for Manitowoc Cranes and has expanded operations into Atlantic Canada. Crane & Hoist Canada spoke with Shawmut Equipment vice-president Joe Vergoni about the history and development of the company.
“We used to be an equipment dealer, and over the years our territory has changed and expanded beyond Connecticut to all of New England and now the Atlantic provinces of Canada,” says Vergoni. “As our territory was expanding we ended up specializing in mobile construction cranes.”
Working with Manitowoc, Shawmut Equipment deal in Manitowoc Power Cranes, Grove Hydaulic Cranes, Grove Telescopic Crawler Carnes, National Crane Boom Trucks, and Potain Self-Erecting Cranes. Vergoni points to the specialization in mobile cranes as an important transition for the company.
“We found mobile cranes to be a good business model that worked for Shawmut so we continued with what we were successful with,” says Vergoni.
The expansion of operations into Canada with the establishment of a shop in Saint John, N.B. was another significant milestone. For many years the company operated out of two locations in Connecticut and in Massachusetts, but by the new millennium, the markets had changed.
“When we expanded into Canada, it was 2008 and the U.S. economy at the time was facing some challenges but
the Canadian economy was still going strong so it was a really good opportunity for us,” says Vergoni. “Seeing a stronger market for selling cranes in Canada at the time versus a weaker market for selling cranes in the U.S. and in our territory of New England, it was a very good opportunity for us at that time. The timing was very good.”
Vergoni says that Atlantic Canada has been a very strong market for the company, to the point where they are now establishing a fourth location, in Elmsdale, N.S.
“When we expanded into Canada, we realized that there was a strong market for construction cranes and mobile cranes in the greater Halifax area, which is where Elmsdale is,” says Vergoni. “So, in order to take care of our customers, we thought we needed a presence. It’s very centralized to the Atlantic Canadian territory that we have. Halifax is centralized in the fact that we can get somebody on a plane very quickly to access the remote parts of that territory. We can put parts on a plane very quickly. We have factorytrained service technicians with service vehicles that can be dispatched from Elmsdale quickly to access customers that are within driving distance.”
Vergoni says that the company’s philosophy is focused on servicing its customers and ensuring that they react and respond to their needs as quickly as possible. That’s the way that George O’Connell did it when he started the company, and it’s the way that his son David O’Connell has done since taking over as president in 1978.
“David’s sons, Kevin and Brian, work for the company as well, and it’s something that they’re doing also,” says Vergoni. “Just do the right thing for the customer, at all times, is what we always try to do.”
Anew overhead crane system from Konecranes “arrives in its own shipping container,” says a news release from the company.
The CXT Explorer can be assembled outdoors in a few hours, the news release said. That enables “costeffective lifting in remote areas.”
“It positions Konecranes proven CXT electric overhead wire rope crane on top of a rugged steel structure supported by two standard ISO shipping containers,” the news release said.
The concept, originally developed for maintaining military vehicles, “brings the advantages of a factory crane to remote or temporary locations,” according to Konecranes.
Its outdoor features include waterproof electrics, rain covers, and cabinet heaters to avoid condensation.
The whole crane area can be covered with a special tent for additional protection if needed, and the unit can run on a generator if there is no source of electricity. The system is suitable for temperature extremes ranging from -20 C to 50 C, the release said.
For special protection, a special tent can cover the entire crane area. The system, which has five tonnes of lifting capacity, can also run on a generator.
“Compared to a mobile crane, the CXT is simple to operate and does not require a dedicated crane operator,” the release quoted Doug Maclam, vice-president of industrial cranes.
When no longer needed, the crane can be packed in the container and sent to the next job site, the release said.
For more information, visit www.konecranesusa.com.
Sept. 12-13, 2017
Oil Sands Trade Show & Conference
Suncor Community Leisure Centre, Fort McMurray, Alta.
“Spanning over 99,000 net square feet of exhibit space, the show brings industry professionals face-to-face with over 400 suppliers and services companies showcasing the newest technologies, products and services at the forefront of the oil sands industry.” http://oilsandstradeshow.com
Sept. 14, 2017
Lift & Move USA
Buchanan Hauling, Indianapolis, Ind.
“Find a great career in the crane, rigging and specialized transport industries.” http://www.liftandmoveusa.com
Sept. 17-20, 2017
Intermodal Expo
Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach, Calif.
“Find 3PLs, ocean carriers, motor carriers and drayage companies, railroads, equipment manufacturers and leasing companies, technology vendors, shippers/ BCOs and many more intermodal industry professionals.” http://www.intermodalexpo.com/
Sept. 17-20, 2017
Railway 2017 Interchange
Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis, Ind.
“Railway Interchange is the largest combined railway exhibition and technical conference in North America.” http://railwayinterchange.org
Sept. 17-21, 2017
Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance
Annual Conference & Exhibition
Yukon Convention Centre, Whitehorse, Yukon
“By exhibiting and actively participating at our event, you will learn about the changing rules and regulations that affect industry.”
http://cvsa.org/eventpage/events/cvsaannual-conference-and-exhibition/
Sept. 18-20, 2017
SAE 2017 Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress
Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare & Conference Center, Rosemont, Ill.
“ComVec 17 is the central forum for the community that develops vehicles and equipment spanning the on-highway, off-highway, agricultural, construction, industrial, military, and mining sectors.”
http://www.sae.org/events/cve/
Sept 20-22, 2017
SC&RA Crane & Rigging Workshop
Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center, Kansas City, MO
“This meeting places a strong emphasis on safety issues, regulatory and legislative updates as well as networking opportunities.”
http://www.scranet.org/
Sept. 25-28, 2017
CeMAT Canada International Centre, Mississauga, Ont.
“Connect with Canada’s high-skill, hightech manufacturing sector.”
http://www.cemat.de/en/exhibition/ cemat-events-worldwide/cemat-canada/
Sept. 26-28, 2017
NTEA Truck Product Conference
Sheraton Detroit Novi Hotel, Novi, Mich.
“For well over two decades, the Truck Product Conference has provided the forum for gaining insights into truck chassis innovations and changes that impact the upfitting of multi-stage commercial vehicles.”
http://www.ntea.com/ truckproductconference
Oct. 3-5, 2017
International Construction & Utility Equipment Exposition
Kentucky Exposition Center, Louisville, Ky.
“ICUEE, also known as The Demo Expo, is the premier event for utility professionals and construction contractors to gain comprehensive insight into the latest technologies, innovations, insights, and trends affecting their industry.” http://www.icuee.com/
Oct. 3-5, 2017
CanWEA Annual Conference & Exhibition
Palais de Congres, Montreal, Que.
“Don’t miss this rare opportunity to meet industry experts.” http://windenergyevent.ca
Oct. 5-7, 2017
Service Specialists Association Convention Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa, Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M. http://www.truckservice.org/
Oct. 9-11, 2017
Offshore Energy Exhibition & Conference
Amsterdam RAI Exhibition and Convention Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
“With the industry in transition OEEC offers offshore energy professionals the ideal meeting place to network, discuss and learn about the future of energy.” https://www.offshore-energy.biz
Oct. 17-19, 2017
Breakbulk Americas 2017
George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, Texas
“Exhibitors and sponsors include specialized ocean carriers, freight forwarders, ports/ terminals, logistics providers, ground transportation, heavy air, export packers, equipment companies and more.” http://www.breakbulk.com/events/ breakbulk-americas-2017/
Oct. 19-21, 2017
Crane Industry Council of Australia Exhibition & Crane Display Adelaide Convention Centre, Adelaide, South Australia
“Elevate your thinking.” http://conference.cica.com.au/
Oct. 22-25, 2017
Associated Wire Rope Fabricators Product Information Exhibition Hilton Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Minn. http://awrf.org/events/
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