A much-anticipated revision to the decades-old federal regulations on cranes and derricks is getting closer to firming up, but now one public-safety official in New York City is questioning the usefulness of the proposed standard. The city’s buildings commissioner, Robert LiMandri, says he is worried that New York’s own crane rules, imposed after what he calls an “abysmal” year of industry safety lapses, would be wiped out once the less stringent, national standards are put in place. The city has spent $4 million studying crane safety and is in the process of enacting more rules based on the report’s 41 recommendations, which include a tracking system for crane parts and a mandatory retirement age for cranes.
Public crane inspectors, too, would be out of a job, LiMandri argues. “Jurisdictions like New York, which has a highly trained staff of both engineers to review crane design and inspectors to inspect cranes and crane operations, will be precluded from protecting the public from unsafe cranes,” he said, testifying on March 18 at a four-day Occupational Safety and Health Administration hearing in Washington, D.C. “Reliance on this industry to regulate itself would be a fundamental mistake.”