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The CFMEU have called the recent collapse of a tower crane at Wolli Creek in Sydney earlier this week, August 6 2017, “not good enough.”
Up to 200 people were evacuated and three workers injured after a tower crane collapsed onto an apartment complex at Wolli Creek in Sydney.
The union say that with an unprecedented level of tower crane activity across Sydney’s skyline, the crane incident at the Probuild Constructions Discovery Point residential high-rise development has again focused concerns on safety standards.
According to the union details are now beginning to emerge regarding the incident, which occurred while crane operators were in the process of erecting the hammerhead type tower crane.
NSW SafeWork, Probuild and the CFMEU are reviewing this incident but so far it appears that a cantilevered grillage had been connected and braced to a lower level slab with tower sections, together with a crane deck had been constructed above the cantilever. The workers were in the process of installing the first counterweight when the grillage sheared, causing the crane to topple and hit an adjacent building.
The union suggests the incident comes at a time when the Federal Government’s is attempting to use the recently reinstated ABCC Building Code to compromise safety inspections by the union.
They have called for a halt on the erection of tower cranes on cantilevered grillage until an independent safety audit has been conducted.