NEW safety guidance has been produced concerning the operating of cranes beside railways.
The Construction Plant-hire Association’s (CPA) Crane Interest Group has launched the 29-page publication, called ‘Good Practice Guide: Requirements for Mobile Cranes Alongside Railways Controlled by Network Rail’.
The guide is free to download from the CPA website and makes clear that mobile cranes and other mobile lifting equipment may present a “significant risk” to railway operations during activities such as rigging, use, maintenance and de-rigging. Network Rail and crane users both have a duty to ensure the safety of the railway.
The guidance is aimed at temporarily installed non-rail mounted lifting equipment such as wheeled mobile cranes, lorry loader cranes, crawler mobile cranes, mini/compact cranes and chassis-mounted mobile self-erecting tower cranes, as well as telehandlers and excavators used for lifting suspended loads.
Topics include a hierarchy of risk elimination and reduction; detailed requirements for crane configuration and setting up; and lift planning.
