The Chamber of Engineers is calling for more accurate and focused legislation on the use of tower and mobile cranes, chamber president Alexander Tranter said in an interview yesterday.

The chamber expressed its preoccupation about the use of tower cranes following accidents involving two such machines last week and the loss of life that resulted as a consequence.

In the first accident at Tignè point, the frame of a tower crane collapsed and came to rest on part of a building that is still under construction. In the second accident on Friday in Bugibba, a tower crane crashed killing a workman.

The chamber is appealing for better collaboration between the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and the Occupational Health and Safety Authority to keep tab on this sector.

There would be more safety at building sites if, among the conditions listed in a development permit, Mepa were to include the need of a certificate that the site is safe and that tower cranes are safe before construction starts.

A risk assessment should be carried in a work area that would involve more than five workers from a health and safety aspect. "Such risk assessments are done only on big projects but there are a multitude of mini-projects across Malta where no risk assessment is carried out," Mr Tranter said.

Every site is a risk not only to the workers who would be involved directly but also to the residents in the neighbourhood.

"It is normal practice that one should leave the crane arm free when not in use because the force of the wind creates a lot of strain and stress on the structure, particularly if the wind is strong.

"As private citizens, we must be assured that wherever we are and whatever is being done, public safety tops the list of priorities."

When magisterial inquiries are held, warranted mechanical engineers are rarely called in to assist, he said.

Furthermore, when an inquiry is completed, there is no feedback that would enable one to learn from the mistakes of others because the findings are not brought to the attention of the trade and the professionals who pertain to it. "We can no longer have authorities acting as islands. There has to be close coordination between them.

"The problem is that although there are good professionals there are not enough to see to the enforcement of laws."

The chamber has been expressing alarm about incidents linked to tower cranes since 1996.

"There has to be a time frame specifying when the tower crane can be put up and taken down. If a crane is not being used, it should be taken away".

Legislation that is in place today dealing with cranes is outdated, Mr Tranter said.

There are the hoists and lifts regulations published in 1964 that deal with lifts installed in public places.

The first reference to cranes in Maltese legislation came under the 1986 Factory Health and Safety and Welfare regulations.

Recently, the occupational health and safety legislation enacted in 2000 changed the definition of "factory" to "workplace", expanding the definition of workplace to include building sites.

Cranes have to be certified now every year by a competent person. However, the certification process is not yet defined so it can be skewed by the subjective orientation of the engineer drawing it up, rather than it being based on well-defined engineering aspects. Although the OHSA looks after this certification, there is nothing that regulates how cranes are used. There is no law requiring certification about how a crane should be correctly mounted and unmounted.

Cranes fall under a machinery directive of the Malta Standards Authority that ensures they conform to EU standards. But this process was introduced only recently.

Neither is there certification requirement for persons operating cranes.

A formal code of practice for the building and construction industry published in 1997 refers to the use of cranes and guides the contractor how to operate in a safe environment.

The chamber started running courses over the past 16 months on the safe operation of cranes. "As citizens we should be protected by knowing that persons operating cranes are certified capable of doing so," Mr Tranter said.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.