Luffing guy

Paul King, director of Dubai-based Gulf Erectors talks to us about concerns regarding modernisation in the tower crane industry.

With the forest of tower cranes getting thicker by the day throughout the UAE, the shortage of qualified engineers to put them up is ever more evident. Barely a week goes by without an accident or a collapse making it into the news.

Happily, several new firms specialising in such things have been set up in the Emirates over the last few years. One of them is Gulf Erectors, a company that brings many years of crane experience in from Europe.

However, Operations Director Paul King has some grave concerns about the towers in the region.

"My main concern that you have tower cranes that can't 360 slew. The wind is getting stronger and stronger in Dubai so that means the drivers have to leave the brakes on overnight, which is dangerous and can topple the crane over" he said.

The problem is compounded by some on-site engineers using whatever comes to hand to clamp the framework in place.

"Just the way they are tied to buildings, they are not using proper manufacturers ties to buildings and there engineers are saying 'this bit of steel will do it,' and it is not as the manufacturer recommended."

This hurried approach to engineering is, in King's eyes, contributing to the number of failures seen recently.

"You've got cranes collapsing all the time and people getting hurt. Only recently we were working at a job site in Sharjah and [on another site] at the back of us a tower crane fell right over."

He explained that one pin was missing from the luffing jib and this in turn caused the bottom pin to come out, resulting in failure. King is clear about why this occurred.

"It was lack of maintenance, There is a lot of it around here. There aren't enough people qualified, though it is probably wrong to say 'not qualified' but they are not qualified in the right aspects."

He went on to explain that the correct courses and qualifications are key to modernisation. "Training is a big issue out here. There is no training body as such for erecting, dismantling or even operating."