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That 3 AM blind pick in Seattle that almost went sideways
I was running a 70 ton Grove on a downtown Seattle site last month, doing a midnight pick of a steel beam into a tight alley. Clearance was maybe 4 feet on each side of the load and the wind was kicking up around 15 knots, nothing crazy but enough to make the rig dance a little. I had a spotter on the roof of the building next door and he kept telling me to swing left, then right, then left again, which threw me off my own feel for the load. On the third adjustment I heard this loud pop from the tag line and realized the load had twisted and caught a scaffold pipe along the wall. I stopped everything, set the brake, and just sat there for a solid minute going over my rigging in my head before I lowered the beam to the ground and re-rigged it with a spreader bar. Cost us two hours of night shift and the GC was standing there with his arms crossed, but after that the pick went clean. I know some guys swear by trust the spotter no matter what, but I'd rather lose time than lose a load. Anyone else ever had to override their spotter mid-lift and deal with the fallout?
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rileyl985d ago
A 15 knot wind on a 70 ton Grove is barely enough to make the load sway unless the beam had a big sail area on it. A 4 foot clearance on each side is tight for sure, but that is what the tag line is for, and a pop from the tag line usually just means it got snagged or jerked, not that the whole lift was about to go sideways. You stopped a pick over one noise and put the beam down, which cost the GC two hours on a night shift where every hour is big money. Stopping when something feels wrong is never a bad call, but calling this one "almost went sideways" might be a stretch, since nothing actually failed and the load never got away from you. Maybe the real issue was the spotter giving you too many corrections instead of trusting your feel, and that is worth talking through with him before the next shift.
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