THE Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) has released new guidance for cranes operating near live rail environments.
The 58-page publication – entitled ‘Requirements for Lifting Equipment Adjacent to Railways Controlled by Network Rail’ – has been jointly produced by the Crane Interest Group (CIG) and the Tower Crane Interest Group (TCIG) in collaboration with Network Rail.
Members of the rail sector’s M&EE networking group and the NRIL Routes Senior Asset Protection Engineers Forum also contributed to the production of the publication, which can be freely downloaded at https://cpa.uk.net/cpa-publications/
Until now, guidance in this area was split between two separate CPA publications – CPA1402 (mobile cranes) and CPA1801 (tower cranes). Both have now been superseded and combined into a single document with the aim of providing clear and consistent requirements for all crane types operating near railways.
The guidance aligns with Network Rail’s ‘CIV0063 (Issue 2): Piling, Drilling, Crane, MEWP and SMPT Operations Adjacent to the Railway’, ensuring that both industry and the client authority work from the same technical baseline.
The publication is designed to provide the foundational knowledge and all requirements in order to mitigate potential effects on railway infrastructure when erecting, dismantling, and carrying out lifting operations where a crane is working next to a railway boundary.
It introduces a defined hierarchy of control for assessing risk, with ‘enhanced clarity’ on oversailing, collapse radius, working range limitation, and the notification process for planned operations. The guidance also sets practical expectations for early engagement, planning liaison, and communication between site teams and Network Rail representatives.
