Tower crane safety in the UAE has seen a dramatic shift since 2008, according to the operations manager of Habtoor Leighton Group, Andrew Henry.
His comments came ahead of a panel discussion on tower crane safety to be held at PMV Live at the Big 5 next week.
“There has been a dramatic shift since 2008, when there was a frenetic pace to construction to just get things built,” said Henry.
“There wasn’t so much of a structured approach to the involvement of consultants. Now, the influence of consultants is greater and they tend to require compliance to a set of international standards in regard to tower cranes.”
Improved operator training has also been a contributing factor, said Richie Colley, Middle East regional lifting operations manager of Velosi.
“The governing bodies are regulating the safety in tower cranes and other areas much better now in the Middle East and especially the UAE.
“They have put some great systems in place for the inspections of these items, but what I feel is lacking is more stringent rules on operators’ training.”
The group of industry heavyweights will meet in a panel session to discuss tower crane safety at PMV Live, part of the Big 5 trade show in Dubai, on November 7th.
The panel will discuss tower crane safety in the context of a recent report published by the Committee for European Construction (CECE).
Other participants in the debate are Dr Peter Schiefer, CEO of Wolffkran and current Chairman of the Committee for European Construction Equipment (CECE), and Thibault Le Besnerais, global product director of Manitowoc’s Potain tower crane line.
