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I don't think I've ever seen mobile/crawler cranes here in Paris. All of them seem to be tower cranes and the structures seem quite stable (I couldn't find deat

I don't think I've ever seen mobile/crawler cranes here in Paris. All of them seem to be tower cranes and the structures seem quite stable (I couldn't find death by crane stats with a quick google). These tower cranes I see everywhere are on fixed construction sites... I suppose the use of mobile cranes is more for renovations -- and yes they seem very dangerous in comparison to a fixed-base crane. But still, when one is going to the effort of building/renovating something of such magnitude, why can't a fixed-base crane be used ? If done right it shouldn't be too hard to mount and dismount a modular tower crane -- maybe there's a market for this sort of thing...

cr1895 11y ago
>yes they seem very dangerous in comparison to a fixed-base crane. I think this is a rather baseless assumption. Properly engineered and planned lifting from a mobile crawler crane should be inherently no riskier than that from a fixed crane. Lifts from both fixed-base and crawler cranes are subject to operator error and maintenance-related risks. My experience is limited to very big cranes on ships (both fixed and crawler) where everything is engineered and planned to (speculating here) a much higher degree. Maybe it's not comparable to the typical (smaller) construction cranes you see in cities.
- sschueller 11y ago
  I believe fixed-based cranes in many countries get inspected and certified to a specific job/load after installation while mobile cranes do not have this requirement.
lhopki01 11y ago
Yeah I very rarely see crawler cranes here in London. The only times I see them are to disassemble tower cranes. I wonder if this has to do with the size of streets in New York vs London. In New York most streets are wide enough to accommodate a crawler crane while in London big crawler cranes have to be disassembled and brought to the building site in pieces and can't site in the street beside usually.
- chiph 11y ago
  It may also be due to underground structures. Driving a heavy crane over some of the Victorian piping and the Tube (where it's close to the surface) would cause damage, and there may not be a clear route into some parts of London.
- robk 11y ago
  They're not at all uncommon around Victoria. Lots of construction around here.
  - lhopki01 11y ago
    Large crawler cranes? There are small ones around London, about the same size as truck cranes but very rarely do I see one the size of these ones on New York.

cr1895 11y ago

>yes they seem very dangerous in comparison to a fixed-base crane. I think this is a rather baseless assumption. Properly engineered and planned lifting from a mobile crawler crane should be inherently no riskier than that from a fixed crane. Lifts from both fixed-base and crawler cranes are subject to operator error and maintenance-related risks. My experience is limited to very big cranes on ships (both fixed and crawler) where everything is engineered and planned to (speculating here) a much higher degree. Maybe it's not comparable to the typical (smaller) construction cranes you see in cities.

sschueller 11y ago
I believe fixed-based cranes in many countries get inspected and certified to a specific job/load after installation while mobile cranes do not have this requirement.

lhopki01 11y ago

Yeah I very rarely see crawler cranes here in London. The only times I see them are to disassemble tower cranes. I wonder if this has to do with the size of streets in New York vs London. In New York most streets are wide enough to accommodate a crawler crane while in London big crawler cranes have to be disassembled and brought to the building site in pieces and can't site in the street beside usually.

chiph 11y ago
It may also be due to underground structures. Driving a heavy crane over some of the Victorian piping and the Tube (where it's close to the surface) would cause damage, and there may not be a clear route into some parts of London.
robk 11y ago
They're not at all uncommon around Victoria. Lots of construction around here.
- lhopki01 11y ago
  Large crawler cranes? There are small ones around London, about the same size as truck cranes but very rarely do I see one the size of these ones on New York.