[MrVandelay]

Breaking News
Crane collapse - A construction crane has collapsed onto a building in downtown Bellevue on 108th Avenue NE. More details to follow.
http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/M_IMAGE.10eaf6a6a7e.93.88.fa.d0.44aa9cde.jpg
(I thought I heard some loud crash tonight from my condo in Bellevue tower)

[InlandEmpire]

It was on NE 4th... that isn't the Bellevue Towers crane is it?? They are showing live footage on NWCN but I am drawing a blank as to what building is going up there. It does look like its next to the Galleria (possibly)

[InlandEmpire]

Crane topples, blocks major Bellevue street

08:37 PM PST on Thursday, November 16, 2006

KING5.com



KING

A construction crane collapse in downtown Bellevue Thursday evening.

BELLEVUE – A construction crane collapsed onto a building in downtown Bellevue on 108th Avenue NE near NE 4th Street on Thursday evening.

The west side of Pinnacle Bell Centre Apartments was torn away when the crane came down.

The crane also hit the ICA Center, a bank, the Civic Center, and the Melting Pot restaurant.

The restaurant was severely damaged.

It was not immediately clear if anyone was hurt in the buildings, on the street or in the crane.

The crane is blocking 108th Avenue NE.

Bellevue Police say that no one has been found to be seriously injured. The crane operator, who was inside the crane, was not seriously injured.

[WonderlandPark]

Is there a wind storm up there tonight?

[MrVandelay]

I just walked over to take a look. I think its the Tower 333 crane. It fell towards the Commons, slid down the side of that building, then crossed the street into the condos that house the "Melting Pot Restaraunt". Apparently someone said that they saw construction workers leave from the site, one left in an ambulance. No one was in the condo units that got taken out by the crane, so I was told.

[Mr.Boisean]

Its the Tower 333 crane, it hit the building accross the street from me. Holy shit that was loud!!!! And to think, I almost moved into that building!

[MrVandelay]

Construction Crane Collapses, Possible One Dead In Bellevue
http://www.kirotv.com/news/10340653/detail.html
POSTED: 8:35 pm PST November 16, 2006
UPDATED: 9:14 pm PST November 16, 2006

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- A construction crane has collapsed in downtown Bellevue.

The crane was at 300 108th Ave NE in Bellevue. KIRO TV's Bellevue Tower Cam shows the tower fell across 108th Ave NE, hitting several buildings as it came down. Bellevue Fire tells KIRO crews on the scene that there may be one person dead.

Bellevue Fire says the crane operator was putting the crane away for the evening when it fell 210 feet below.

KIRO 7 Eyewitness News is reporting that the crane's operator was in the basket at the time of the collapse. He does not appear to be seriously injured.

KIRO also reports that the crane hit three buildings across the street. It also crashed into Wells Fargo Bank and a condominium complex.

Bellevue Fire crews are checking for damage and injuries in those buildings.

[pdxman]

Have they determined a cause yet?

[Mr.Boisean]

One dead? What a terrible freak accident. Sitting in your living room one minute, dead from a crane through the wall the next...? Very sad.

[WolverineFan]

Sorry for the blur... I had to keep the shutter open to get this.....

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j73/RandyLucas425/DSC01297.jpg

[James Bond Agent 007]

Wow man this sucks!!! :(

[horatio_the_hermit]

Good god. This blows my mind. Bad times.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Thursday, November 16, 2006 · Last updated 9:44 p.m. PT

One killed when construction crane collapses in Bellevue

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- One person was killed when a construction crane collapsed Thursday night in downtown Bellevue.

The dead person was in an apartment building struck by the crane as it fell, Bellevue Fire Department Lt. Bruce Kroon said.

The crane's operator was also hurt but reportedly was going to be OK, police spokesman Greg Grannis said.

It wasn't immediately known whether additional people were hurt. Officers were going to door to door to check on people, but hadn't been able to get into one building because of damage, Koon said.

Firefighters used a ladder to retrieve the operator from about 20 to 30 feet above the ground, but he was able to pull himself out of the cage, Koon said. He was taken to nearby Overlake Hospital in this suburb east of Seattle.

The accident occurred just before 8 p.m. on 108th Avenue Northeast near Northeast 4th Street, a bit north of the Seastar Restaurant, and the crane was blocking 108th Avenue Northeast.

The crane was working on 333 Bellevue Tower, which is an office building that has been vacant for a few years, Koon said.

The crane operator told the fire department he was getting ready to shut down for the night, when he heard a crack and the crane went down, striking four buildings, Koon said.

The top floor of the Pinnacle Bell Centre Apartments was crushed and the building immediately next to the crane was damaged extensively, Koon said.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
That was from the P-I, this is from the Times:

Thursday, November 16, 2006 - Page updated at 10:18 PM

E-mail article Print view

Crane collapses in downtown Bellevue

By Peyton Whitely, Sara Jean Green and Mike Carter

Seattle Times staff reporters

A giant construction crane in downtown Bellevue tipped over tonight and smashed into an apartment building, killing at least one person.

The crane, which was several stories tall, toppled from a construction site about 7:45 p.m. It fell across 108th Avenue Northeast, a major downtown north-south thoroughfare, and sliced through an apartment building across the street, according to firefighters and witnesses.

At least three downtown buildings sustained severe structural damage: the Plaza 305 building, the Civica Office Commons and the Pinnacle BellCentre, a mixture of commercial stores on the ground level and luxury apartments above.

Also damaged was an adjacent restaurant, the Melting Pot.

Fire officials said they were "red tagging" the buildings, meaning they were not safe to be occupied. The crane was being left suspended over the street pending the arrival of investigators from the state Department of Labor and Industries.

The crane was located at the construction site of Tower 333, a 20-story office building under construction at the corner of Northeast Fourth Street and 108th Avenue Northeast.

The crane operator, who was not identified, was trapped in the control cab of the yellow crane nearly 30 feet off the ground. Firefighters used a ladder to reach him, and he walked from the scene, according to fire officials. Police said he "rode the crane down" nearly 200 feet.

"We're told he's going to be okay," said Bellevue police Officer Greg Grannis.

Bellevue Fire Chief Mario Trevino said the crane operator reported he was securing the crane for the night when he "heard a noise" and the crane toppled. Trevino said the accident is being blamed on "a catastrophic failure" of the craine.

One woman who witnessed the accident said it "sounded like two waves of thunder" as it came down, bouncing off adjacent structures on the way down..

Firefighters were going through the buildings one floor at a time late Thursday, looking for residents.

Officials said the person killed was living in a fourth-floor apartment in the 248-unit Pinnacle BellCentre. His identity was not immediately available.

Ryan Peach, 28, a trained emergency medical technician, was working a second job as a waiter at Melting Pot when the crane came down. He said he helped the first police officers on the scene search the apartments on the fourth floor.

Peach described a scene of terrific destruction. The ceilings had come down, along with wires and pipes, and there was nearly a foot of water on the ground from a broken water main. In one apartment, the crane had sliced through the walls and was lying across a couch.

"We were screaming in there," trying to locate survivors, Peach said. "We couldn't go in. It was just too dangerous."

The Tower 333 building is being constructed on the site on which the late developer Eugene Horbach planned to building the Bellevue Technology Tower. Horbach's plans ended when he lost the property in foreclosure 18 months before his 2004 death.

The Seattle office of Hines, an international real-estate firm, and Washington Capital Management, announced plans for Tower 333 in March. The firm said the new tower would rise 20 stories and comprise approximately 400,000 square feet.

[robbobpdx]

One dead? What a terrible freak accident. Sitting in your living room one minute, dead from a crane through the wall the next...? Very sad.

Yikes !!! very sad :(

[mSeattle]

Terrible.

[Seasun]

Amazing that the operator rode the crane down. From the photos I've seen this is definitely a Morrow crane (as so many are around the Seattle area). Morrow supplies lots of Liebherr tower cranes that you can learn more about at their web site below. The model 550 *might* be the model used at this site. It'll be very interesting to see how/if the long delay in construction contributed to this terrible accident. I write this because the crane base might have been set a few years ago and then only recently used. Engineering assumptions can change or be misunderstood after a few years pass.

R.I.P. to the person who died.

http://www.morrowequipment.com/PDF/LIEBHERR%20Tower%20Cranes/550%20HC%2020.pdf

http://www.emporis.com/en/il/im/?id=475081

[Seasun]

I don't get over to Bellevue very often - if you can help me better understand this project site:
What's the current state of construction? about how many floors above grade so far?
Who's the general contractor?

Thanks.

[James Bond Agent 007]

I don't get over to Bellevue very often - if you can help me better understand this project site:
What's the current state of construction? about how many floors above grade so far?
Who's the general contractor?

Thanks.
It's this project here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=116807

This is the project that started out as the Bellevue Tech Tower in 2001 or thereabouts but was put on hold after the dot-com bust. It's recently been resurrected as the Tower 333 project, with rumors that google was going to take a big chunk of space in it.

Don't know who the contractor is.

[SeattleHusky82]

The contractor is Lewis. Hopefully mhays can give us some more insight on what will happen now with the project.

[PDXPaul]

Wow, that's sad. Accidents like this are terrible and I feel terrible for the man who died and for those people whose homes were destroyed. Really unfortunate:(

[Seasun]

The contractor is Lewis. Hopefully mhays can give us some more insight on what will happen now with the project.
oh no. I'm sure mhays will handle it as well as anyone can under the circumstances but I wouldn't expect or want him to post anything that isn't in the press or publicly available via WISHA reports. The Emporis site still lists DPR as the contractor and I thought they pulled out of the Seattle market a while ago - I just didn't realize this was a Lewis job.

[moosanova]

hey guys i was there on 108th ave at the bellevue transit center waiting to cross the street towards the west when i heard a VERY loud pop looked towards my south and saw the crane begin to fall in a SE direction.... before striking the first building it was silent ( no Noise ) and then BOOM it smacked into the first building, shearing off it's corner and approx. 3 floors.. then the counterweight portion of the boom sswung around and smacked into ( what looked like floors 3-6 of the building right behind the one that had it's corner obliterated. and then the boom pierced right through a condo building just below the roof line and proceeded to cuth through approx4-5 floors of residential units.... unbelieveable damage to the condo structure... and rubble all along 108th ave... this is definitely the worst accident seattle area has seen in a while if ever! this event will forever be burned into my memory....literally the scariest thing i have ever been witness to. peace and prayers to the one fatality.

[65MAX]

Tragic freak accident. Condolences to the family of the deceased. :(

[zilfondel]

Were you guys getting heavy winds up in Seattle at the time?

I say so because on the Oregon coast we were getting 100-120 mph winds... but that was several days ago (1-2).

Anyway, condolonces...

[velciane]

I have noticed in the past that the crane was not secured to the site very carefully. It was basicly attached by steel i-beams to the top floor of the unfinished parking level. I had not stopped by in weeks, so it might have changed. I always looked at it and wondered how it was able to remain stable, compaired to other cranes which have 30x35 foot concrete bases.

Anyway I walked along 108th until stopped by police around 8:30. The Civica Commons building has several holes punched into the side of the building, and the 305 building is completely torn in half (one half is completely rubble now). I couldnt see so much damage to the condos, and its very sad to hear someone was killed. We had fire departments from woodinville, redmond, Bellevue, and others all helping in the rescue efforts.

I drove by the site about 15 mins ago, and they now have a large crane helping to move the current damaged tower crane. I assume they are moving it out of the way for further search and rescue. I would assume that NE 4th and 108th will remain closed in that area.

[Black Box]

Yikes! A worker fell to their death in Minneapolis last week while working on a highrise under construction. Last year, another person died while in the elevator at One Lincoln Tower and there was some other tragedy (not fatal), while the Washington Mutual Tower was going up.

[velciane]

From the Seattle P I Website:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20061117/450bellevuecrane17_crash2.jpg

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20061117/450bellevuecrane17_crash1.jpg

Crane collapse in Bellevue kills man
Heavy equipment crashes into buildings, apartments

By SCOTT GUTIERREZ
P-I REPORTER

BELLEVUE -- One person inside an apartment building was killed when a construction crane collapsed Thursday evening in downtown Bellevue, striking several buildings.

Bellevue Fire Department Lt. Bruce Kroon said the man's body was found in a fourth-floor apartment of the Pinnacle Bell Centre.

The crane was being operated at the time it fell, and the operator was hurt but reportedly not seriously, police spokesman Greg Grannis said.


The crane fell and chopped the corner of the Plaza 305 building (right), then sliced into the Pinnacle Bell Centre Apartments (background), where one person was found dead.
Paul Leeper and Linda Rosario, both 42, live in a third-floor condo directly below the point of impact in the Pinnacle Bell Centre building. They believe the dead man lived in the unit above them.

Rosario was working at her computer in the living room of her condo. She was about three to four feet from the windows. "I heard this rumbling like thunder, getting louder," she said. "It was quite terrifying."

Suddenly, glass was everywhere.

"I covered my head. I stood frozen. I told my husband to throw me my shoes. There was glass all around. I called 911. They said, 'police, fire or medical?' I said, 'Everything.' "

Leeper said he heard a loud rumbling, then a huge boom. "I thought it was a plane. My wife thought it was an earthquake. The fourth floor -- it was toast. My deck is missing."


The impact caved in their ceiling, lowering it by a foot.

"I guess it wasn't my time," Rosario said.

Firefighters used a ladder to retrieve the operator from about 20 to 30 feet above the ground, but he was able to pull himself out of the cage, Kroon said. He was taken to Overlake Hospital. The hospital reported no other victims had been brought in as of midnight.

The accident occurred about 7:30 p.m. at 108th Avenue Northeast near Northeast Fourth and Second streets, a bit north of the Seastar Restaurant. The crane was blocking 108th Avenue Northeast, a major downtown intersection, and the damaged buildings included Plaza 305 and the Civica Office Commons.

The crane had been working on Tower 333, which is an office building that has been vacant for a few years, officials said.

Tower 333 is a 20-story, 430,000-square-foot office building that was formerly known as the Bellevue Technology Tower.

It was approaching the final stages of completion, according to the developer's Web site. The project was scheduled to be completed in October 2007.

Brokers and real estate sources told the P-I in August that Google Inc. had its eye on the tower for possible offices.

Two men who work nights on a Pilchuck Contractors road crew saw the crane fall and ran to the buildings, arriving before police.

"It was unbelievable," said Turk Allen. "I've never seen anything like it, and I hope I never see anything like it again.

"I think I'm going to have at least a couple bad dreams about it."

Adam Moore said he heard a loud pop, looked over and saw the crane "make a slow roll into the side of the building." Then he saw sparks fly.

"It sounded like a tire blowing out times 1,000," Moore said.

The two men ran down a catwalk into the building, looking for victims. They spotted a four-man cleaning crew, but none had been harmed in the crash.

The crane operator told fire officials he was getting ready to shut down for the night when he heard a crack and the crane went down, Kroon said.

Part of the top floor of the Pinnacle Bell Centre was crushed and the building immediately next to the crane, Plaza 305, was damaged extensively, Kroon said. About 100 displaced residents in the apartments were taken to the Bellevue Hilton and other locations and sheltered overnight.

Police officers and firefighters are still checking other buildings that were hit by the crane. The cause of the accident was not immediately known.

The victim in the apartment was in a fourth-floor unit. His identity was being withheld Thursday night, pending notification of relatives.

From the street, a piece of the man's furniture, likely a couch, poked through the gash that was left by the crane. The crane was still bent up against the building.


Onlookers look at the destruction from the crane that fell and hit at least three buildings in downtown Bellevue Thursday night.
The crane operator had been securing the crane for the night when he heard a snap and it collapsed with him still inside, Fire Chief Mario Trevino said. The operator rode the crane down when it collapsed.

The crane hit three buildings in all. It first hit an office building, then came down on the apartment building and then shaved the side of another building with mixed business/retail inside.

Andy Redinger, who lives in a building next door to the apartments, said he felt the "ground shake." Redinger, who said he used to work in a metal factory, said it sounded like someone had taken several carts full of metal and had thrown them off a building.

Jennifer O'Rourke, 36, a Microsoft employee who was working late when the accident occurred, said she arrived home to find her condo unit blocked off.

"I'm very worried about my birds," she said. "I have a pet parrot. She's in the dark."

Jim Riley, manager at the Jimmy Johns sandwich shop about a block away, said he and his employees went out to the parking lot and saw smoke billowing out of the nearby buildings.

"The first thing I thought was that it was another 9/11," he said.

Riley sent his driver to investigate the situation, and was told there was a "huge hole in the building."

The crane collapse occurred about an hour after rush hour.

"If this occurred an hour earlier, it could have been a lot worse," Bellevue Mayor Grant Degginger said.

One of the buildings hit was the Civica Office Commons, which sustained damage to the northeast corner on the fifth and sixth floors.

Kellanne Henry was working on the fourth floor with a co-worker. She recalled working in a high-rise office building in San Francisco when the 1989 earthquake hit there.

"At first, I thought it was an earthquake. But it was such a violent impact to the building that I knew it wasn't an earthquake. I thought it was a bomb," Henry said.

Late Thursday, fire and police officials were still on the scene looking for possible other victims, using police dogs to search through the debris. The state Department of Labor and Industries also had investigators at the site Thursday night.

J.C. Hong, 37, lives next door to the unit where the fatality occurred. He is a Lexus salesman called away to business Thursday afternoon in Tacoma.

"I wanted to go home," he said. "But it was a good thing. Otherwise I would have been at home probably watching TV."

His wife, Soo Young, 36, said of the cranes: "Before this happened, I thought about a crane falling. I thought it could do a lot of damage if it fell down."

[Mr.Boisean]

The whole area is still blocked off, theyre having a hell of a time removing debris from the area.

[benzz]

Oh now that is freaky. When my wife and I moved to the Eastside from Nevada this spring, we decided that we really liked Pinnacle Bellcentre. We were approved and even had a unit reserved for us (on the 4th floor), but then they wouldn't let us in because neither of us had employment in the area yet....we were really upset, but we're totally happy with the place we ended up (in Kirkland).

If not for that, I would have received a nasty surprise last night....what side of Pinnacle was hit?

[squintstopher]

Chalk up another engineering disaster for the Seattle area.

[MrVandelay]

....what side of Pinnacle was hit?

The West side, facing 108th street

[mSeattle]

The crane wasn't secured????

[JiminyCricket II]

Yikes! A worker fell to their death in Minneapolis last week while working on a highrise under construction. Last year, another person died while in the elevator at One Lincoln Tower and there was some other tragedy (not fatal), while the Washington Mutual Tower was going up.

there's also was a pretty gruesome incident at Cosmopolitan where somebody dislodged a piece of steel at the top of the elevator shaft and it fell onto the head of a worker at the bottom of the shaft. The death has been kept pretty hush-hush it seems.

[sequoias]

How unfortunate and sorry for the loss of the soul of innocent person in that apartment building. I got that news from my friend and I had to check the news and said wow that's a big mess!

[Lostwave]

View from Civica Commons

http://media.twango.com/m1/large/0019/52ad0f6bba6749dfa7432ad73527f8d7.jpg

http://media.twango.com/m1/large/0019/50aba178dfc24463899b5d787d838d02.jpg

http://media.twango.com/m1/large/0019/dcfdf088aed64a63b2294f404bff81fe.jpg

[MrVandelay]

^^^^^ Very interesting upclose photos Lostwave. Thanks for sharing

[MarkDaMan]

freaaaak-y...can't imagine coming into the office to see that!

[Dougall5505]

was the building still below ground?

[Dougall5505]

more pictures from the seattle times
check out the photo gallery it shows how far along 333 was. it looks like they had started the core
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/home/index.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/
it'll be interesting to see the rebuilding process

[James Bond Agent 007]

Yeah thanks for the pics Lostwave.

Very very tragic. :(

[bgwah]

Wow... Horrible!

[mcbaby]

what are all those people from the apartment building supposed to do? how many units were damaged?

[MrVandelay]

Winds may have weakened crane
By Steve Miletich and Susan Kelleher
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003436808_cranesafety18e.html
Seattle Times staff reporters

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2006/11/17/2003436249.jpg

High winds earlier this week may have weakened metal fasteners in the base of a giant construction crane that collapsed in Bellevue Thursday night, killing one man and severely damaging three downtown buildings.

"That's what we're focusing on," Charles Lemon, crane-safety specialist for the state Department of Labor and Industries, said Friday.

Dozens of bolts and welds failed where the base of the crane was secured, Lemon said. The bolts connected the crane to large steel beams and a concrete slab in an underground parking garage at a corner of the construction site.

Winds had dropped when the crane collapsed Thursday, but stronger winds earlier in the week might have rocked the 210-foot tower crane and placed excessive stress on the base, Lemon said.

He said investigators would also examine the crane for structural problems that could have put stress on the base.

Lemon said the crane operator was preparing to close down at the time of the accident, and the crane was not carrying a load — virtually eliminating excessive weight as the cause of the collapse. The operator was trapped in the control cab of the crane about 30 feet off the ground after a plunge of nearly 200 feet, according to fire officials. Firefighters used a ladder to reach him, and he was able to walk away from the scene.

The crane had never been inspected by state officials, said John Ecker, compliance manager for Labor and Industries.

They inspect cranes only if there is a history of problems or a specific complaint from an employee or outside party, Lemon said. They are not allowed by law to make random visits, he said.

Lemon said he wasn't aware of any problems with the crane before the collapse.

The crane was erected Sept. 9 at the site of a 20-story office building under construction at the corner of Northeast Fourth Street and 108th Avenue Northeast in Bellevue, said Tamara Hardy, safety director for Northwest Tower Crane Service.

Hardy said her company constructed the crane tower, but that the design of the base was overseen by the general contractor, Lease Crutcher Lewis, and approved by an outside engineer.

Contractors are told to check cranes every day they are used, but they are not required to conduct a full structural evaluation, Lemon said.

Lemon said contractors are not required to check for metal fatigue after high winds, although it would be prudent.

It wasn't clear if Seattle-based Lease Crutcher Lewis or the crane's owner, Salem, Ore.-based Morrow Equipment, examined the crane after the windy weather. Neither Morrow nor Lease Crutcher Lewis responded to inquiries.

State inspectors on Friday found that three of four welds in the support beams had failed and that up to 72 bolts had been pulled from the concrete or sheared from the foundation, Lemon said.

He said a metallurgist was trying to determine if the failures resulted from weakened metal or if the crane fell over for some other reason, stripping the bolts and welds.

The National Weather Service reported sustained winds of 16 mph at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Wednesday, with gusts of up to 41 mph. Earlier in the week, there were gusts between 26 mph and 38 mph.

Hardy, the Northwest Tower safety official, said the crane was not secured to a base made by its manufacturer. She said that was acceptable, as long as the custom base used by Lease Crutcher Lewis met standards and was approved by its engineer. It wasn't clear whether that was the case.

State officials said an engineer typically would design and approve the installation.

Workplace safety rules require operators to routinely inspect tower cranes according to "industry standards."

Although Lemon said those standards require an inspection every day a crane is used, the guidelines are less exact. For example, they state that cranes in "heavy service" shall be inspected "daily to weekly," while those in light service shall be checked monthly. More thorough annual inspections are required for all cranes.

Only the periodic inspections require record-keeping. Labor and Industries checks to see whether contractors comply with the standards only when there is a reported problem.

Steven Pfeiffer, engineering manager for Seattle's Department of Planning and Development, said local building inspectors focus on a final structure, not how it gets erected.

Because cranes are not part of the finished building, the bases on which they're built fall outside the routine inspections. For example, a concrete platform on which a tower crane sits would not be inspected unless the platform was going to become part of the final building.

"We deliberately stay out of that because we don't have the resources to stay on top of that kind of thing," Pfeiffer said, explaining that government monitoring of the "means and methods" of construction would require an almost constant presence on construction sites.

Instead, the operator is responsible for the safe operation and construction of a crane, according to L&I.

On Friday, L&I issued an advisory to operators, urging them to search their cranes for structural problems and reminding them of their responsibility to inspect cranes according to the industry standards.

Lease Crutcher Lewis has been cited by L&I for three serious workplace safety violations in Seattle and Bellevue since 2003. Ness Cranes, whose employee was operating the crane when it collapsed Thursday, was cited once in 2005, according to L&I records. Details of those incidents were not immediately available. Northwest Tower Crane Service, based in Tukwila, has been cited for six serious safety violations in Bellevue and Seattle since 2002.

It was not clear if any of the past violations against each company occurred at the site of Thursday's accident.

[Seasun]

I think it's noteworthy that this morning's big headlines in the Seattle P-I and Times imply two very different views of what may have lead to the accident. seattlpi.com's story headlined "Operator in crane wreck has history of drug abuse" discusses his last conviction in May 2000 and implies that he might have been on drugs while operating the crane. Bringing up a 6 year old conviction in such a huge headline seems a bit much. His life history could have contributed to the accident but it just seems inappropriate at this stage of investigation. The P-I article also mentions metal fatigue as a possible factor in the collapse. The seattletimes.com headline "Winds may have weakened crane" emphasizes how metal fatigue may have contributed to the accident. Maybe the P-I just thinks they've beaten the Times to the operator's life history or maybe the Times isn't so sure who the guy had sex with in the 90's is relevant to a crane falling over.

I just wanted to write about this for a minute because in the construction business (as in others) there are plenty of people with sketchy backgrounds - even some with only 9th grade educations as the P-I article points out about the crane operator. I just question the relevance of some of the points in the P-I article. I am generally pleased that the construction terminology details in the articles are not too badly mangled. I think the strangest thing about some of the articles I've read is that they refer to the building being constructed as being "vacant" - uhh...the building isn't even up yet - it's confusing/odd to call it vacant. I think those writers are trying to express that work stopped a few years ago and only restarted this year.

[PDXPaul]

I read that PI article. I thought it was in very bad taste. Trial by media at it's worst. If the Crane operator was ON drugs AT THE TIME the crane fell, fine. But dragging that guy through the mud for a past conviction. That was harsh. My respect level for the PI went way way down today.

[WonderlandPark]

Hopefully something tall can come out of this, that puny 3 story job would make a nice site for something taller.

[Seasun]

A pretty good thrashing of the P-I's headline and story is going on at their own website. I don't read it very often but there are a few well informed folks on there - one who claims to describe the history of this crane's installation (seems believable) and another who claims to have "rode the crane" down in April of 1985 during the construction of Century Square in downtown Seattle. That accident did happen and while I'm not familiar with the details it might be the most similar to the recent accident.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/soundoff/comment.asp?articleID=292891

[MrVandelay]

I also was not to pleased with the PI story about how they presented the crane operator. It seems that they cast judgement on the guy in big bold headlines, just to sell some papers. very bad taste. :(

[mSeattle]

I think it was in poor taste too. I'm sure there is pressure to blame someone, something quickly over waiting for thorough investigations. It's super tempting to run with a bone when you think you've been tossed one.
The headline of "Investigations Begin" or something like that, then include the information in the write-up would have been better.

[HurricaneHugo]

I have a friend who lives in the condo that got struck.

Freak accident indeed.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Bellevue crane sat on base with "very unusual design"
By Steve Miletich, Amy Martinez and Ashley Bach
Seattle Times staff reporters

The construction crane that toppled in downtown Bellevue on Thursday sat on a base with a "very unusual design," according to an official with a Tukwila company that erected the crane for the general contractor.

It was the first time in 13 years in business that Northwest Tower Crane Service has installed a crane on steel beams instead of a concrete foundation that is normally used, said Tamara Hardy, Northwest's safety director.

State investigators are studying the construction of the custom-made base, which held a 210-foot tower crane that collapsed, killing one man and damaging three buildings.

As the investigation continued Monday, Bellevue city officials said the developer of the Tower 333 building, the site of the accident, could restart construction within two weeks.

But the city still must assess damage to the 20-story office project, said Bellevue's deputy director of development services, Michael Brennan. The state Department of Labor and Industries also needs to approve restarting construction.

Regarding the design of the crane that collapsed, Hardy said the most common method of securing cranes is to attach them to bolts buried in a concrete foundation.

"That's about the only way we ever do it," she said, noting that Northwest Tower Crane Service has installed 150 to 250 cranes a year over the past five years — and 300 so far this year.

This crane was secured to four steel beams, configured in an H-pattern, in the parking garage of an office building under construction.

Hardy said the general contractor, Seattle-based Lease Crutcher Lewis, designed the base, with the approval of an outside engineering firm.

Lease Crutcher Lewis President Bill Lewis could not be reached for comment on Monday.

The company designed the crane base on the site of an existing foundation, after a previous developer was unable to continue an earlier project. It was not clear if the previous work forced Lease Crutcher Lewis to come up with a custom design.

Most cranes are connected to a base provided by the crane's manufacturer, Hardy said.

During meetings that preceded construction, Northwest Tower Crane Service's president, David Weber, asked the engineer for Lease Crutcher Lewis for approval of the design, Hardy said.

Dozens of bolts and welds ripped or sheared from the base when the crane collapsed Thursday evening, possibly weakened by high winds last week, a state official said.

Over the next week, state inspectors will visit the 13 other construction sites in Bellevue that have tower cranes, said Elaine Fischer, spokeswoman for the state Department of Labor and Industries. The department wants to make sure contractors are complying with a statewide advisory Friday to inspect all cranes.

Fischer said the department will release no more information on the accident investigation until it is complete, which could take up to six months.

Investigators have interviewed the operator of the crane, Warren Taylor Yeakey, of Tacoma. Ness Crane Services, which employed Yeakey, gave him a drug test after the accident. Fischer said state inspectors would not release the results of the test.

Yeakey, 34, has been convicted of four drug-related crimes in years past. Most recently, in 2000, he pleaded guilty to methamphetamine possession and was sentenced to four months in jail.

Yeakey and his family have declined comment.

With a weekend full of holiday events approaching, downtown Bellevue is slowly returning to normal.

On Monday morning, 108th Avenue Northeast partially reopened, with one northbound lane. The road won't fully open for at least a day or two, after crews clean up the debris around Plaza 305, the most heavily damaged building, city spokesman Tim Waters said.

By Monday afternoon, all of the fallen crane had been cut into pieces and trucked away.

At Tower 333, "the site is being inspected for damage by structural and geotechnical consultants, and our contractor will proceed when the safety of the site, and of the community, can be assured," George Lancaster, vice president of communications for The Texas-based Hines development company, wrote in an e-mail. "While they are grieving now, the Tower 333 team is poised to move forward at the appropriate time."

Damage assessments also were being done at surrounding buildings. BRE Properties, the San Francisco-based owner of the apartment complex where a resident was killed, hoped to have an estimate by today or Wednesday, said Tom Mierzwinski, vice president of corporate communications.

Two units at Pinnacle BellCentre had structural damage, Mierzwinski said, and four units had other damage that prevented them from being occupied. Residents are being put up in local hotels and apartment complexes at BRE's expense, he said. Pinnacle BellCentre has 248 units in all.

Plaza 305 remained uninhabitable Monday after nearly a quarter of it was sheared off in the accident. The three-story building housed Pacific Continental Bank, AppleOne Employment and Intelligent Results, a software company.

Pacific Continental has moved its nine-member Bellevue staff to downtown Seattle. AppleOne, a national staffing agency, is looking for new space in Bellevue, said its Los Angeles real estate broker, David Wash.

"We're waiting to hear from the ownership as to how much damage there is, how long it will take to rebuild, and if, in fact, they'll rebuild," Wash said.

Jeff Foushee, an owner of the building, could not be reached Monday. Efforts to reach Intelligent Results also were unsuccessful.

At Civica Office Commons, offices were damaged at six businesses, but all were back at work Monday, said Michael Bernstein, executive vice president at Brickman Associates, Civica's New York-based owner.

[James Bond Agent 007]

I smell a big lawsuit.

[rooter]

But it's not the base that failed.

There was bolt shear and broken welds about ten feet up. I think it was being out of plumb, that caused it.

[edgepdx]

But it's not the base that failed.

There was bolt shear and broken welds about ten feet up. I think it was being out of plumb, that caused it.

Think it was knocked out of plumb by the winds?

[Seasun]

But it's not the base that failed.

There was bolt shear and broken welds about ten feet up. I think it was being out of plumb, that caused it.

I looked at the site myself on Sunday and the two south legs of the crane tower appear to be broken off well above the connection to the base. What's disturbing is that at least one - maybe both - of the north legs appear to still be attached to the steel wide-flange beam. Until the investigation is much further along I don't think it can be said what happened first: The south legs having a problem that then applied more force to the north legs and ripped the beam out. Or the beam having a problem that then lead to the south legs ripping apart. What caused what is not as obvious as some would like to think. This would be a much cleaner investigation if the steel beam wasn't lifted out of the hole. Even though I was some distance away it was surprising I didn't see more violent tearing and bending on the end of the steel beam that was very visible.

[rooter]

Well...

why don't we have a closeup?

[Seasun]

I took a few shots even though it was dark and rainy. I should be able to post a something tonight or take a close look at the Times photo below and you can at least see the unpainted wide flange beam I'm referring to. You can also see how the two south legs are still attached to something while the north legs appear to have not been been ripped apart.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/photogalleries/localnews1524/8.html

[Jay_Z]

Here are some pictures from Thursday night through Saturday evening.

Go to ....
http://www.twango.com/channel/Jay_Z.public

I was looking for the best way to share 47 photos!

[MrVandelay]

Here are some pictures from Thursday night through Saturday evening.

Go to ....
http://www.twango.com/channel/Jay_Z.public

I was looking for the best way to share 47 photos!

You got some very good shots there from different angles, thanks for sharing.

[rooter]

(whups, double-post)

[rooter]

Thanks for the pics, Jay_Z.


These are the money-shots:

http://media.twango.com/m1/large/0019/2aa4a7d7775b46baa91a385ce0bb017e.jpg
Still can't see the metal tears, but it is clear that there was one distinct failure point, and that it was above the base. When the jib hit the ground, the base tore loose and hopped up, jouncing the form up while the base came down and the form fell to rest on the iron. Notice the shredded iron below.


http://media.twango.com/m1/large/0019/317368eb14844f1a944c367e1f286615.jpg
This seems to be from the other angle, but at an earlier time before they pulled the inside forms. A large girder shard penetrated the deck.

Man, I sure hope our brother Matthew was not involved in 333. He is not able to comment here for general legal reasons at least.

Accidents like this can kill a company through reputation alone, even though the crane operator was a sub. At least it makes insurance/bonding outrageous.

[Amanita]

Gods, what a crying sin...
That poor guy who was killed, and that poor operator! Shame on that newspaper for slagging him over something he did years ago, they need their asses nailed to the wall for this. How the HELL does using drugs years ago have any relevance now? I looked at those pictures, even if the guy had been having a booze and smack party out on the counterjib (tail end) of the crane, there's no way he could have caused it to collapse like that.

Operators are supposed to check their cranes every day, but metal fatigue is a difficult thing to diagnose by eyesight alone. Between jobs, cranes recieve nondestructive testing for fatigue-induced cracks, usually with a magnetometer or similar device. That's a whole different thing from daily inspections.

There's something about that crane base that I really don't like- Every Tower crane I have seen is mounted on a thick concrete pad anchored solidly into the earth. That base seems insubstantial at best. I've heard of engineers approving odd things before, just pick up a copy of Howard Shapiro's "Cranes and Derricks" and have a read. Engineers have in the past designed crane bases that were unsafe, only to have the errors caught at the last minute by somebody more astute.

And what's with government inspectors not being allowed to make surprise visits? Here in Nova Scotia they are, and they can and do stop work if something is found to be unsafe.

Seeing those pictures of that beautiful crane laying crumpled up like that is sad, even more so knowing that somebody lost their life due to this disaster, and it looks like another man's life may be ruined as a result.
What a ad and sorry waste all around.

[rooter]

Uh oh. Looks like Ness, Lewis, and the base engineer are in trouble (http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=cranesafety18e&date=20061118). (link here)

Dozens of bolts and welds failed where the base of the crane was secured, Lemon said. The bolts connected the crane to large steel beams and a concrete slab
...
State inspectors on Friday found that three of four welds in the support beams had failed and that up to 72 bolts had been pulled from the concrete or sheared from the foundation, Lemon said.

He said a metallurgist was trying to determine if the failures resulted from weakened metal or if the crane fell over for some other reason, stripping the bolts and welds.

The National Weather Service reported sustained winds of 16 mph at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Wednesday, with gusts of up to 41 mph. Earlier in the week, there were gusts between 26 mph and 38 mph.

This may explain why the tower was listing three feet after the winds.

Twisted/weakened base, then separation and collapse? Or loosened girder bolts and stretched iron, putting too much leaning stress on the base? Witnesses said there was a loud POP, and then silence as it fell. That the pop was so loud means that the failure was directly connected to a solid surface.

They say that a number of contractors noted concerns about the crane in logs, in the days before the accident.

But it did fall after rush hour, and if it had to fall in that direction, at least it caused about the least damage possible... although it did damage three separate buildings.

And I gotta say, no matter how pretty the name "Pinnacle BellCentre complex" is, it is built embarrassingly cheaply, from the looks of the opening in Matt Ammon's apartment.

[Seasun]

Uh oh. Looks like Ness, Lewis, and the base engineer are in trouble.
Everyone involved has some trouble but my list would focus on Lewis, the iron workers installing the support beams (I'm not sure if Lewis hires iron workers directly - they might have been a subcontractor) and the special inspector (normally hired by the project owner to inspect concrete placement, welding etc..) The special inspector isn't often involved in temporary facilities but how/whether the welds and bolting were completed per the engineers' design could end up being a major issue. All companies involved in this - at least the ones I know - Lewis, Morrow, NW Tower Crane and MKA - are top notch but all it takes are a couple of oversights.

Using a mobile crane to at least get the project going could be tough. The shoring system (I believe soil nails) is probably strong but the engineers and city are already nervous enough after the accident - placing large outrigger loads on the edge of a hole that was never supposed to be open for 5(?) years just isn't ideal. Let alone the impacts to pretty major streets.

[MrVandelay]

Crane cleanup to continue all week
By Joe Mullin
Seattle Times staff reporter
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003450776_crane28e.html


Cleanup at the site of a crane collapse in downtown Bellevue will continue throughout this week, Bellevue city spokesman Tim Waters said Monday. All roads in the area are open to traffic.

Matt Ammon, a Microsoft attorney, died Nov. 16 when the 210-foot construction crane crashed into his downtown Bellevue apartment building. The crane fell across 108th Avenue Northeast, a major downtown north-south thoroughfare.

The Plaza 305 building, which was severely damaged, is closed to its tenants, Waters said. The city is working with the building's owner to make conditions safe for tenants to come in and remove their belongings.

The Pinnacle BellCentre condominium building, where Ammon was killed in the accident, has four units that remain unsafe for occupation, Waters said. The Civica office building is about 90 percent habitable.

Last week, state inspectors visited 13 construction sites with cranes operating around the city of Bellevue, and found that they were being operated properly.

"These employers are taking their responsibilities seriously," said Elaine Fischer, a spokeswoman for the Washington Department of Labor and Industries. "We didn't find anything that caused concern."

Inspectors reviewed inspection logs and maintenance records, interview crane operators, and observed and photographed the base and tower of the cranes, Fischer said.

The crane was at the site of Tower 333, a 20-story office building under construction at the corner of Northeast Fourth Street and 108th Avenue Northeast. The crane was anchored in a pit about five stories deep.

An investigation into the cause of the accident is ongoing by the Department of Labor and Industries and is expected to take months to complete.

[MrVandelay]

State considers new rules on crane safety
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=crane22m&date=20061122&source=st
By Alex Fryer and Steve Miletich
Seattle Times staff reporters

Gov. Christine Gregoire's top labor adviser met Tuesday with the state Senate's labor-committee chairwoman to discuss possible new rules overseeing construction cranes.

The meeting between Peter Bogdanoff and Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, came as other state lawmakers considered legislative action after the collapse of a tower crane in downtown Bellevue on Thursday.

"It appears to me there is inadequate state oversight," said Kohl-Welles, adding that new regulations can often take months to review. "This situation requires more immediate attention."

Rep. Steve Conway, D-Tacoma, chairman of the House Commerce and Labor Committee, said lawmakers are focusing on two issues: the frequency of crane inspections and operator certification.

Matt Ammon, a 31-year-old lawyer at Microsoft, died in last week's accident, which caused millions of dollars in damage to three buildings.

State investigators are studying the base of the crane, which was connected to steel beams in the parking garage of the construction site instead of to a concrete foundation — the method normally used to hold tower cranes.

David Weber, president of Northwest Tower Crane Service in Tukwila, which erected the crane Sept. 9, said Tuesday that before agreeing to the job, he looked at plans for the base presented by the general contractor and its engineering firm and concluded they were satisfactory.

"It was designed by competent engineers," Weber said, noting that engineers relied on calculations and load limits provided by the crane's Swiss manufacturer.

Weber said that although Northwest has never used a crane base identical to the Bellevue configuration, the company has attached cranes to steel beams at a few other construction sites.

Representatives of the general contractor, Seattle-based Lease Crutcher Lewis, and its engineering firm, Seattle-based Magnusson Klemencic Associates (MKA), have not responded to inquiries. MKA said it would need permission from Lease Crutcher Lewis before talking about the project.

James Headley, director of the Crane Institute of America, a Sanford, Fla.-based organization that provides training to crane operators, said: "It's unusual that this tower [in Bellevue] collapsed. It's very unusual."

The crane, manufactured by the Switzerland-based Liebherr Group, "is a very, very reputable tower crane, maybe even the most reputable tower crane," Headley said.

It has safety features that help minimize overloading errors. Given that, and the manner in which the Bellevue crane appears to have collapsed, Headley said, "It's hard for me to see how he [the operator] would have had a hand in it. I just can't imagine what he would have done to cause the structural failure."

Washington state now does not mandate special training to operate construction cranes, which can tower more than 200 feet and lift more than 35,000 pounds.

Although crane operators are supposed to pass a standardized national test, their employers administer the test and judge qualifications.

Thirteen states and six cities have specific licensing requirements for crane operators. A federal certification requirement is pending.

While state inspectors monitor maritime cranes, they do not routinely inspect the structural safety of construction cranes.

Instead, the state Department of Labor and Industries targets job sites that are considered hazardous, including framing, roofing, excavation and power-line repair. Crane operator is "not on our list of jobs we keep an eye on," said Elaine Fischer, spokeswoman for the department.

However, state engineers will conduct an inspection if there has been a complaint or previous accident.

That's a sharp contrast to California, where state officials require operating permits and inspect all cranes.

A 1989 crane collapse in San Francisco prompted California's regulations. Three workers died and two passers-by were crushed by falling debris after a construction crane snapped in two and tumbled 19 stories.

Bogdanoff, the governor's labor adviser, said some requirement for operator training may be introduced in the Legislature even if investigators were to determine that human error was not to blame in Thursday's collapse.

Construction contractors, crane operators and building engineers all want to avoid disasters and the liabilities that follow, he said. New inspection requirements should be considered only if they increase public safety.

"They [construction owners] are well aware of the risks involved. It's in their economic interest to make sure accidents don't happen," Bogdanoff said. "Anything we do ought to be effective. We have to be measured about what we're doing."

[Seasun]

A few comments about the P-I article posted below. The more I think about the possibility of the crane being out of plumb - the more scenarios I think about.
1. It bothers me that the article states:
"the steel tower severed about 15 feet above its base -- a fact that has led some who've seen the wreckage to believe that the tower itself failed, rather than its custom-built foundation."
As I've mentioned before - the 2 south legs of the crane are severed but the 2 north legs appear to have stayed connected to the beams so this language seems misleading to me.

2. Certain leaning and flexing is well within normal tolerances of a tall crane. If the crane is "pointing at you" or "pointing away from you" it should be plumb but when rotated 90 degrees and not lifting a load the counterweights will tend to lean the crane backwards. If you've never stood still and lined up a crane with a tower in the background I recommend doing this - it's impressive how flexible these cranes can be.

3. Formally documenting the plumbness of tower cranes might be one of the few new things the state might want to require. I'm concerned that this accident might lead to ineffective laws that just complicate work and not actually improve safety.

4. If this crane is determined to have been out of plumb it'll be interesting to see how the liability plays out. The support beam design could be perfect, the steel support beam install (welding etc) might have been up to standards and the crane itself might have been perfect but maybe the elevation/levelness/layout of the beams might have been a key factor. An out of plumb crane might have been applying some very high and unexpected stresses to the support beam connections.

I'll stop for now, here's the article...stay warm!

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Bellevue crane appeared to be leaning earlier
Operator passes test for drugs after crash

By ANDREA JAMES
P-I REPORTER

A photograph obtained by state investigators appears to show the Bellevue tower crane that collapsed Nov. 16 was leaning ominously days before the deadly accident, the Seattle P-I has learned.

Department of Labor and Industries investigators are focusing on potential problems with the vertical alignment of the 210-foot-high crane, which was assembled at the downtown office-tower construction site.

Investigators are also looking into whether the crane was allowed to "weathervane," or swing freely, during windstorms before the collapse. A failure to do so by the crane operator would have put more stress on the massive structure, experts say.

The answers could determine why the steel tower severed about 15 feet above its base -- a fact that has led some who've seen the wreckage to believe that the tower itself failed, rather than its custom-built foundation. There was no load on the crane at the time of the accident, narrowing possible causes for the deadly accident.

The collapse was one of the worst construction disasters in state history, gaining attention from lawmakers who want to see stricter regulation of major construction sites.

The crane heavily damaged three buildings as it toppled, killing a man in his apartment building across the street. Trapped in the crane's cab, operator Warren Yeakey survived -- escaping with minor injuries.

Drug test results show that Yeakey, 34, was not under the influence at the time of the crash, an informed source told the P-I. The results have not been made public. Yeakey has a history of substance abuse, including a number of criminal drug convictions, according to court documents.

To help with the Bellevue investigation, L&I has hired Anthony de Sam Lazaro, a mechanical and forensic engineer who helped the state agency reconstruct the 1994 Kingdome crane accident that killed two workers.

"We obviously do not have the expertise on staff," Gov. Chris Gregoire said Monday. "It's a complex situation. We are looking at whether it was operator error, whether the wind (was) a factor, whether it was constructed properly -- all of that is the expertise that we don't have in Labor and Industries, so we've brought the expertise in."

advertising
The state will determine its next steps after L&I issues its final report, which could take a couple of months, Gregoire said.

The crane was made by Liebherr, a privately held Swiss manufacturing group that has 10 production sites in Germany and 18 scattered in other countries.

Four Liebherr engineers from Europe flew to Bellevue the day after the collapse to examine the wreckage, and left the next day, said Pat Achurra, the L&I safety and health compliance officer investigating the incident. Investigators have not officially ruled out any possible causes for the collapse, he said.

L&I is seeking photos and videos from the public taken before the collapse, spokeswoman Elaine Fischer said Monday. "If they were taken of a happy family outing and they just happened to get the crane in the background ... that opens up more possibilities," she said.

Evidence and questions can be sent to Fischer at nele235@ lni.wa.gov.

Many parties are watching the investigation, including the insurance agents for the various construction firms involved, said Bill Lewis, who owns Lease Crutcher Lewis, the general contracting firm on the construction site where the tower fell.

Other major players include Liebherr; project owner Hines; crane owner Morrow Equipment Co. of Salem, Ore.; Seattle engineering firm Magnusson Klemencic Associates, which designed the base; Tukwila-based Northwest Tower Crane Service Inc., which erected the crane; and Ness Cranes Inc., which provided the operator.

The construction site had a protocol in place to prevent undue stress on the crane when it wasn't being operated, Lewis said. He didn't know Monday whether that protocol had been followed.

"That's something we pay attention to on every job," he said.

Experts say torque caused by high winds is powerful enough to bend and break steel.

"If the crane is not in weathervane mode, the torque from the wind load on the boom can contribute, at least in part, to failure," said Frank Shih, a mechanical engineering professor at Seattle University. "The torque failure is similar to twisting metal coat hangers until they permanently deform."

Metals are meant to withstand a certain amount of pounds per square inch. Fatigue failure means that a metal is strained and breaks after repeated cycles of overuse, said Mark Tuttle, chairman of the University of Washington's mechanical engineering department.

"All metallic materials do suffer from some sort of fatigue," Tuttle said. "The challenge to the engineer is to ensure that the stresses a structure experiences through the lifetime of its service do not lead to fatigue failures."

If the crane is not allowed to weathervane in a storm -- one scenario L&I investigators are considering -- that would apply torque to the tower.

"Torque makes something want to twist or spin," Tuttle said. But other reasons could have contributed to the collapse, he said. For example, if the crane once picked up a too-heavy load, it could have created a small stress fracture that grew over time, he said.

Also, if the tower wasn't properly vertically aligned, its center of gravity would be off, further contributing to stress on the tower, Tuttle said.

Crane operators are instructed to pull the brake on the load-hauling boom and let the crane weathervane in certain wind speeds and when the crane isn't in use, said Thomas Barth, a veteran crane operator who now investigates accidents.

"When I used to run tower cranes, I'd get all the way down to the ground and I'd say, 'Now did I take that brake off?' and I'd climb 200 feet up again," Barth said. "Sometimes they get in a hurry and they are working there real late, and they forget to take the brake off. It's very important for that crane to weathervane."

Ness Cranes attorney Megan Kirk, the company's spokeswoman, would not comment on the investigation Monday.

Strong winds had buffeted the region in the days preceding the collapse, according to the National Weather Service. The service recorded an 80-mph gust in Bellingham on the day before the crane's fall.

[rooter]

I've been tellin' people since the beginning...

Only think I didn't know about is this weathervane mode.

[MrVandelay]

I've been tellin' people since the beginning...

Only think I didn't know about is this weathervane mode.


I didn't know for a fact about the weathervane mode, but I suspected it. I noticed driving home each night sometimes through downtown bellevue, that all the cranes would be facing the exact same direction, and i thought it would be too much of a coincidence that would occur.

[Seasun]

I recall being on a job where a neighbor called about the crane being "in operation" at night (maybe a troublemaker kid messing with the crane)...had to explain it's supposed to do that - it's weathervaning. I think the brakes that prevent weathervaning are calibrated to release automatically at a certain level of force to prevent damage in case the operator forgot to release it before going home. Weathervaning presents some interesting challenges when working near helipads (mainly hospitals and TV stations) where weathervaning might interfere with the flight path - this influences crane selection and/or procedures to minimize problems.

Above is similar to the neighbors who think the crane's "leaning" when it just doesn't have a load on it. I saw the KIRO TV story tonight where the lady shows a photo that she took in October before the collapse - the reporter presented the photo as some kind of evidence of imminent failure when it might be darn close to normal. For the record I'm waiting for more real evidence and the state report before drawing any conclusions - slap me if I forget this.

[MrVandelay]

Does anyone have photos of the crane (prior) to the crane collapse? I seen on the news that that L&I was looking for photos that may show the crane 'leaning' or 'twisting' prior to the collapse. just fyi

[Seasun]

Does anyone have photos of the crane (prior) to the crane collapse? I seen on the news that that L&I was looking for photos that may show the crane 'leaning' or 'twisting' prior to the collapse. just fyi
The Times appears to have the same photo I saw KIRO TV using.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/zoom/html/2003452521.html

KIRO is also stating that the crane would be allowed to be 5 1/4" out of plumb over its 200'+ height and that this photo appears to show the crane maybe 3 feet out of plumb. I suspect the 5 1/4" value is when the tower itself is erected without the counterweight or main booms. If considering the tower only - then yes the crane should be extremely vertical but once the booms are added it's a different story. Steel structures - including cranes - sway and move to help dissipate loads - if they were stiffer it wouldn't be as sound.

This "before" photo is helpful since it confirms how the crane tower was oriented before falling. One of the 4 sides of the tower is different than the others. 3 sides have what can be called sideways V's while the 4th side is composed of "upside down V's". In the photo I can finally confirm that the upside down V's were facing west. This is the side that ended up facing up when the crane came to rest near the ground. If you're wondering why the 4th side is different - it's designed to work with the "climbing" or jumping framework. When the cab and booms are raised as the building grows it's this 4th side that takes the load onto the top of the upside down V shape. If you want to learn more: http://frank.itlab.us/bridge/wrapper.php?apr_08_2005_east_crane.html

Anyway, I wasn't postive which direction this side of the crane was facing but now that I see this picture it helps me further visualize the motion of the crane as it fell.

[rooter]

Uh oh, this photo is persuasive. Ness and Lewis do appear to have similar liability. I would say more about this, but I have a friend here.

I've doctored the photo using The Gimp (free Photoshop alternative), and below are the results.

Notice she had the camera straight (or the photo was later corrected) to make the white crane vertical. I've drawn an exactly vertical red line next to it, which also shows the tower has a slight bend toward the top, since it has no load.

Now check the yellow tower which fell. You can't compare the two towers since they are different distances away, and perspective messes you up. But I grabbed the building on the right and moved it over to compare. Although the building is leaning right a bit (and we know it's vertical), the tower is leaning far more, I'd guess at least 3 feet, as I've said all along.

http://quantum-sci.com/images/crane.jpg

[Seasun]

Uh oh, this photo is persuasive. Ness and Lewis do appear to have similar liability.

Are you mentioning Ness because maybe the way the crane was operated put extra loads on the crane or supporting structure that lead it to lean? Definitely a possibility - I'm just looking for clarification because I don't think as part of their "daily inspections" they'd survey the plumbness of the crane nor were they involved in the installation (by NW Tower Crane) to my knowledge.

[rooter]

Ness because it is the operator's duty (and is generally-accepted practice) to inspect the crane each day for cracks, bends, or anything out of the ordinary.

Other subs noted in their logs, concerns about the tower listing, and so it would have been obvious. You would think the operator would be concerned about his own safety, but DOY.

There's a certain workplace psychology which encourages you to shut up and just do your job without 'making waves' about things that might cost money. Keeps order, but reeally costs in the long-run. A better-educated person should have been running that crane.... but eh, this guy was cheep!

[rooter]

I tried drawing a line along the Lewis tower, to maybe see where it bends, but the jpeg artifacts are just too bad to make any conclusions. A higher-rez pic is needed, and a decent saveset format, like png.

[Jay_Z]

Construction crane causes concern in Bellevue

10:47 PM PST on Thursday, November 30, 2006

KING5.com

BELLEVUE – Another crane in downtown Bellevue – just a few blocks from the site of the deadly crane collapse earlier this month – is causing concern.

A crane inspector was called in Thursday morning after an irregularity was discovered on the crane of a construction site of a 20-story, high-end apartment complex.

The entire job site was shut down and 25 workers were sent home.

A project manager said a team of experts will work through the night to figure out exactly what the problem is.

"During our routine daily safety check we noticed an irregularity in the tower crane, and in the interest of the safety of our workers and the public, we decided to check it our further and we closed the site down and began an investigation," said Scott Lee, Hanover Construction Company.

While the regional manager of Hanover Construction insists there is no imminent danger, he is letting residents of four nearby buildings know that there is some kind of a problem.

"They have a choice if they are uncomfortable to relocate, and we'll help them with that," said Lee.

This construction site is not run by the same company that had the fatal accident two weeks ago.

Lee said it's a different kind of crane and a different situation.

People living in nearby buildings were asked to voluntarily leave their homes.

Earlier this month, a 210-foot crane collapsed on several buildings in downtown Bellevue, killing Microsoft attorney Matt Ammon.

[WolverineFan]

Which site? The news on TV said that it was about 4 blocks away.... but I didn't hear the name of the project. Could it be the Bravern?

[Seasun]

Which site? The news on TV said that it was about 4 blocks away.... but I didn't hear the name of the project. Could it be the Bravern?
Based on a google search for "hanover construction" and bellevue as well as a map flashed on a TV report it looks like the site adjacent to the west side of the Bellevue main library and park.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Ne+10th+Street+And+108th+Avenue+Ne,+Bellevue,+WA&ie=UTF8&z=17&ll=47.620216,-122.194587&spn=0.002198,0.010815&t=h&om=0
KIRO TV announced that the contractor plans to disassemble the crane tomorrow. That's a big deal by itself.

[Seasun]

FYI: Here's info on crane installation (not take down unless the writer is confused)

From http://www.ci.bellevue.wa.us/5577.htm
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, November 30, 2006

Downtown streets to close Saturday for crane work

On Saturday, Dec. 2, downtown sections of 112th Avenue Northeast and 110th Avenue Northeast will be closed for construction.

* The southbound lanes of 112th Avenue Northeast between Northeast 10th Street and Northeast Eighth Street will close from 4 a.m. until 6 p.m., to allow crane installation at the Ashwood Commons II construction site.
* All of 110th Avenue Northeast between Northeast Sixth and Northeast Eighth streets will close from 4 a.m. until 2 p.m., to allow crane installation at the Bravern construction site. Local access to businesses and parking lots will be provided. This closure will be repeated those same hours on Saturday, Dec. 9.

[velciane]

Its coming down. =)


------------------------------------

BELLEVUE, Wash. - A tower crane in Bellevue will be dismantled on Friday morning due to cracks found in the mast, construction officials said.

Construction officials say they spotted the cracks during daily inspections, but don't know what caused the cracks. They say the cracks pose no immediate danger, but they're still taking several safety precautions.

The builder, Hanover Construction, shut down the site and sent workers home Thursday morning. Hanover also alerted residents in three nearby apartments within the possible fall zone, and offered to pay for hotel stays if the residents preferred to vacate.

Hanover officials, along with inspectors from the city of Bellevue and officials from the state Department of Labor and Industries evaluated the irregularity throughout Thursday afternoon and into the night.

Just two weeks ago, a different construction crane just a few blocks away collapsed to the ground and killed 31-year-old Matt Ammon, a Microsoft attorney. Ammon was originally from Pittsburgh and had just moved to the Seattle area in June.

[rooter]

Construction officials say they spotted the cracks during daily inspections, but don't know what caused the cracks.
Ah, they're overreacting. Just epoxy it up, and it will be fine. :dead:

[MrVandelay]

Ah, they're overreacting. Just epoxy it up, and it will be fine.

epoxy, thats overkill, just use silver Duct tape

[Jay_Z]

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/jzenner/IMG_4808.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/jzenner/IMG_4832.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/jzenner/IMG_4866.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/jzenner/IMG_4880.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/jzenner/IMG_4905.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/jzenner/IMG_4922.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/jzenner/IMG_4956.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/jzenner/IMG_4972.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/jzenner/Dec020611.jpg

[velciane]

:previous:

Wow great pictures! Thanks for posting. :D

[Dr. Smoke]

Ooooo... aaaah...

Wow, they took the whole jib down in one piece. And ironically, a Ness crane was doing the dismantling!

They could not pay me enough money to be one of the guys up on the counterweight boom of that crane while it's being dismantled. :no:

[MrVandelay]

Yes, fantastic photos JayZ

I heard from someone that before the taking down of the Hanover crane, that there was scheduled to errect two more cranes downtown. Would it be the 2nd bravern and maybe City Center II? Tower 333 doesn't have a new crane ready for it yet does it?

[James Bond Agent 007]

Cool pics, thanks Jay_Z!

But it's sad to see a crane go down prematurely. :(

[Seasun]

Excellent photos. I parked at the library 2 weeks ago (next to this current problem site) for my walk around Bellevue and visit to the crane collapse site. I walked around this current problem crane site and made a mental note of the tower configuration. It's a noticeably tall crane that has the wider base sections topped by the smaller sections. This configuration is totally legit according to this catalog(link) (http://www.morrowequipment.com/PDF/LIEBHERR%20Tower%20Cranes/200%20HC.pdf) but you don't see it every day. (crane shown may not be exact model but is at least similar model offered by Coker Cranes)

According to a P-I article(link) (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/294508_crane02.html) published today this crane was supplied by Coker Equipment. I'm familiar with one of their installations in Nevada and it was a much shorter Liebherr tower crane that was in pathetic condition. Visually as well as electrically/mechanically speaking it was not good. I hope the folks in booming Las Vegas are taking a closer look at their installations (not just Coker). Assuming the article is correct about Coker being the supplier - I'm sure Morrow is glad not to have one more problem to deal with but I'd be disappointed if everyone assumes Morrow is the same as Coker.

I'd really like to know more about how these suppliers inspect, track and repair their tower crane sections. I think Morrow's pretty good but I don't know if they UT or mag-particle test all or some welds or if they just do visual inspections. Also I wonder if every tower section is tracked with its entire history well documented.

From the P-I article:
The cracked crane, also like the one that collapsed, was made by Liebherr, a privately held Swiss company that manufactures tower cranes in Germany and Spain. Las Vegas-based Coker Equipment, which owned the 1020 Tower crane, did not return calls seeking comment Friday.

[Dr. Smoke]

I am sure that they are going to find that the Hanover crane has many, many more hours on it than is claimed. These cracks are strong evidence that the books were cooked. Coker will be paying for all of Hanover's construction delays... far more than all the money they made by grifting the numbers.

And it seems to me that Northwest owned the Lewis crane, but if it was Coker, they will be sharing in liability with Ness and Lewis in that collapse. Hell, Northwest was probably cooking the books too... this would be a way for Ness and Lewis to reduce their liability, by bringing in a partner! Howdy, partner!

[Seasun]

^ Morrow owns the crane that collapsed. Northwest Tower Crane installed both the collapsed crane and the one taken down yesterday. NTC's job is generally to erect whatever they're hired to erect but I'd hope that if the crane was a piece of cr@p that an experienced crane installer should have documented their concerns and even refused to install it.

[Dr. Smoke]

Eh, how deeply involved is the mafia in Seattle construction? I know that in Dallas they owned the cement industry.

This would help explain the inexplicable triple-cost of projects like the state 99 tunnel. (viaduct replacement)

[Jay_Z]

Coincidentally, you mentioned that you had seen an installation of their crane in Vegas, when I was there for the original install at 1020 they said this crane came from Vegas.

It looks like they installed the base for the Bravern (2nd) crane and also unloaded the crane for Ashwood Commons II, but didn't get it set up.

[Seasun]

I mentioned that I'm familiar with a Coker crane in Nevada. It makes sense you were told this crane came from Vegas since Coker is based there and we all know there have been lots of cranes in Vegas.

Anyone know of other Coker supplied cranes in the Seattle-Bellevue area? In such a busy market sometimes we scrape a little too close to the bottom of the equipment barrel. Nevada L&I actually requires fairly well-documented crane installations and meetings with L&I yet this paperwork doesn't seem to have improved the quality of Coker cranes.

Anyone else noticing some media saying 200' tall and others saying 300'+? Shouldn't the height of the crane be pretty easy to report?

[velciane]

I drove around downtown tonight, saw that the pieces for the crane boom on the Ashwood II site are already waiting for the install. Its going to be a white crane. The 2nd crane for Bravern has the base installed, and its going to be another yellow, a little curious to see the final height on this one.

[MrVandelay]

I drove around downtown tonight, saw that the pieces for the crane boom on the Ashwood II site are already waiting for the install. Its going to be a white crane. The 2nd crane for Bravern has the base installed, and its going to be another yellow, a little curious to see the final height on this one.

Ashwood II or City Center II? I didn't even see them digging for ashwood II yet, and I though it was still in Design Review (maybe I'm way outta date on that one).

[Skian]

Ashwood II

They dug that hole pretty quickly (over the last month or so).

[Jay_Z]

Ashwood II or City Center II? I didn't even see them digging for ashwood II yet, and I though it was still in Design Review (maybe I'm way outta date on that one).


Ashwood II...

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/jzenner/IMG_4772.jpg
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/jzenner/IMG_4766.jpg

[MrVandelay]

Thanks for the photos! I actually went by there during lunch today to have a look myself. Dang, I live downtown, in BBT, but I somehow totally skipped by on that project. glad to see its coming along! :)