Gold achievements

High standards reap rewards was the theme of the Crane Industry Council of Australia (CICA) annual conference, held in September on Queensland's Gold Coast.

An international contribution to the conference came from Ton Bakker and Denis Brouwer of Mammoet (Singapore) who delivered well-received presentations: the first highlighting the many heavy lifting systems used by Mammoet, generally of a scale far beyond those seen to date in Australia; and the second on the methods used to raise the Russian submarine the Kursk.

Given the huge size of the Australian continent and the small population of 20 million, the country can support few large cranes being permanently stationed there. In the past very large cranes have been brought in only for long-term resource projects, but the ability to containerise the latest generation of Mammoet lifting systems for rapid deployment might stimulate a change of thinking on shorter term projects.

Among the workshop sessions, Paul Heeks of PA Construction Equipment delivered a sales training session, in a bid to help the industry improve the quality of its presentations to its clients and move away from rate-cutting as a 'marketing' tool.

CICA president Tony Bartlett covered possible changes to road regulations affecting cranes as a result of the National Road Transport Commission's third heavy vehicle reform package. Currently cranes, as special purpose vehicles, are exempt from Australian Design Rules, but emission rules may be extended to cover cranes in the near future.

The reforms relevant to cranes look at performance measures such as stability in sharp and steady turning, tracking of trailers in sharp manoeuvres and slow speed turns, braking distances, swept path, driver vision, wheel loads, gross combined mass, bridge loads, front projection and tyre speed rating.

Towed trailers will be allowed in some states, provided they comply with road rules, with major considerations being weight and swept path. Current regulations are not uniform between states, and although the reforms may bring these closer together, it will be a major miracle if true uniformity is achieved.

New South Wales has commenced a three year trial in which it offers concessions such as slightly higher axle loadings and 24-hour travel for cranes to 2.9m width, provided they are fitted with an approved GPS system monitored for breaches by an independent third party. This trial will most probably spread to other states.

Ron Tarraran, president of the Crane Industry Association of Queensland, generated interest with a workshop on traineeships, as these are on the verge of being introduced for the crane industry. The Victorian Crane Association and CICA are working with a vocational training institution to develop a trainee package for the crane industry. Content of the course, which will result in a Certificate III in Materials Handling - Mobile Crane, is in draft form.

There are five parties to the process: the relevant state government, a monitoring body to oversee the operation of the scheme (on behalf of the government), a registered training organisation, the employer and the employee. Course content can be adapted to suit the employer, and the traineeship is portable between employers. The final step in getting this scheme off the ground is gazetting an award variation to make provision for a traineeship wage.

Perhaps the most significant workshop, presented by Jeff Brundell from the Victorian Crane Association, was on a new Crane Assessment Programme (CraneSafe Victoria) to start in Victoria before going national. This voluntary scheme, under which cranes will be assessed and marked with a green sticker if they are safe to work, has the support of the crane association, union and WorkCover Authority, and is a very serious attempt at self-regulation by the industry, in a bid to improve workplace safety.

Concluding the conference was a dinner, where various awards were presented by the Australian magazine Construction Contractor. These awards comprise two categories of Lift of the Year, and the Con Popov Memorial Award given for service to the industry.

The two awards are nominally the major lift and simple lift categories, although the 'simple' refers more to the level of detail required by the judges than to the simplicity of the lift. Nevertheless there were deserving winners in both categories.

Gillespies Crane Services won the simple lift category with a tandem lift of two 23t generators onto the roof of a building in Sydney. What would have been a simple lift with a single large crane operating from a major road was made complicated by a ban on closures of major roads while the Olympic Games were on. This meant that the lift had to be done from a 5.6m wide lane at the rear of the building - a lane too narrow for large cranes to operate in.

The tight access conditions barely gave the crane enough room to slew to land the generators on the roof, where they were skated into position.

Aztec Analysis won the major lift of the year category with a complicated project to remove retractable lights at the Adelaide Oval cricket stadium and install fixed towers. Aztec Analysis acted as lifting consultant to Brambles Industrial Services, which provided the craneage.

A failure of the mechanism on one of the four towers had led to all towers being left standing for a considerable time while a long term solution was found. During this time the mechanisms became unserviceable, and parts of the mechanisms seized.

Documentation of the original towers, including their weight, was poor, and it was calculated that a 300t crane would be required to lift the towers with a single crane. The largest cranes in the state were two 140t Liebherr cranes, and the mobilisation and hire costs of a 300t crane for the duration of the project would have been enormous.

A lifting beam was designed to allow the two 140t cranes to support the towers as they were collapsed, section-by-section, into the caisson that they retracted into. The retracted columns were then cut and laid over for removal, after the light assemblies were removed for use on the replacement towers. Everything that could have gone wrong did during the tower collapse, but Aztec Analysis always had a contingency plan for each eventuality.

The replacement towers were built in four sections and assembled with a 140t crane and a tailing crane. However the 19t light assemblies were too heavy, and the height was too great, for the 140t crane to place them and a 400t crane was brought from Sydney for this operation.

The Con Popov Memorial Award is named after Australia's greatest crane designer, who was a pioneer in the development of multi-stage hydraulic cranes. He was also a tireless worker for the crane industry as a whole.

The award for 2001 went to the late Brian Hain, who shared some characteristics with Con Popov. He would not have claimed to be a crane designer, but his ideas made a large contribution to the development and success of the Franna pick-and-carry crane that has been so successful in Australia over the past 15 years.

Hain gained motor mechanic qualifications, before working as a crane driver and assisting in construction of a large backender crane on a wartime Mack truck. At different times before his association with Franna he sold cranes and had his own businesses selling new and used cranes.

He and partner Lou Parolin bought the designs, drawings, stock and patents of a revolutionary crane design from Dave Francis in 1986. The crane had potential, but the business was undercapitalised. With Hain's drive and vision and Parolin's business acumen the Franna replaced the traditional tractor crane in many applications, and a range of cranes was developed. More than 1,000 Frannas had been sold by the time Hain and Parolin sold the business to Terex in 1999.

It was Hain's belief that once the Australian market was won, Franna needed the support of a major international crane manufacturer to develop a significant export market for the crane.

Hain was an active member on many committees of his state crane association and CICA, and made significant contributions in gaining concessions on axle loadings. He served as CICA president for a two year term.

Hain died earlier this year following a lengthy battle with leukemia, but his wife Leona and son Craig, who followed him into the crane industry, were on hand to accept the award. In these circumstances it was a particularly emotional moment at the conference, reflecting the high regard in which Brian Hain was held, and acknowledging that the award had again found a deserving winner.