The developer of a major Burnaby highrise project has been fined more than $350,000 in relation to an incident in January that saw Lougheed Highway closed in both directions while part of a construction crane dangled off the side of a 64-storey building above the busy street.
'Ongoing and repeat violations'
On Jan. 25, a 22-ton derrick crane atop Tower 2 at the Gilmore Place project at 4120 Lougheed Hwy. was lifting a section of a tower crane that was being disassembled, but the derrick lost its load, according to a WorkSafeBC report.
That caused the jib of the derrick to collide with another 8.5-ton derrick crane, snapping off the jib of the smaller crane and leaving it dangling from the side of the building via steel cables, the report said.
It was temporarily secured to prevent it from falling as the developer and contractors decided how to recover it, according to the report.
Onni and Morwest Crane & Services Ltd. sent WorkSafe a number of versions of a recovery plan and the section of crane was removed on March 10.
All the cranes were off the building by April 25, according to the report.
A full investigation into the incident is still underway, according to WorkSafe, but an inspection in May has already resulted in a $351,059 fine for "ongoing and repeat violations" at the site, according to WorkSafe.
After the inspection, WorkSafe concluded Onni, as the prime contractor, had failed in its responsibility to properly co-ordinate the safety of crane operations by Morwest and concrete forming contractor CapWest Build – and then failed to properly co-ordinate the safety of the recovery operation after the cranes crashed.
First, WorkSafe said Onni had failed to ensure Morwest's two custom-made derrick cranes had a manufacturer's manual or written instructions from an engineer for the inspection, routine maintenance and safe operation of the crane or hoist as required by regulations, according to the report.
Recovery plan potentially 'catastrophic'
After the accident, Onni then failed to ensure a professional engineer had reviewed Morwest's plans to recover the smaller derrick crane and its dangling jib section, the report said.
Morwest had proposed using a Spyder crane for the recovery work.
The proposed Spyder crane weighed about 4,500 lbs. and had a rated ground pressure of about 1,002 pounds per square foot, according to WorkSafe, while the building's access platform had a designed load rating of only 100 pounds per square foot, according to the report.
When WorkSafe advised Morwest and Onni to have Onni’s engineer review the construction hoist and access platform, a manager responded that the Spyder crane was "well within load limits."
But a manager later told WorkSafe they "did not have any knowledge of an engineer reviewing the information prior to their response," according to the report.
WorkSafe said Morwest's and Onni's proposed recovery plan could have had "catastrophic consequences."
"Having the Spyder crane loaded on the access platform on level 65 could have caused the Spyder crane to compromise the deck of the access hoarding and potentially fall over 600 feet to the grade below," stated the report.
'Numerous dropped objects from elevation'
The inspection report also noted other safety issues.
All parties agreed materials could fall off the side of the building during the recovery work, according to the report, but Onni initially failed to have an engineer or other qualified person assess the risk of the jib and other related material dropping from the top of the building.
"When prompted by WorkSafeBC to review the potential drop zone for a dropped object such as the jib, the employer engaged an engineer to develop a potential drop zone calculation for the suspended jib, and the drop zone area produced by the engineer had a radius of 450 feet from the location of the suspended jib (which more than doubled the size of the initial drop zone proposed by the employer)," stated the report.
Onni also hadn’t followed its own "dropped objects program" which called for debris nets to be installed two floors below the active work area.
The report noted Onni's dropped objects program was put in place in February 2023 as a result of "numerous dropped objects from elevation at the site."
Finally, the report stated Onni failed to ensure Morwest's work to remove the tower crane from the top of the building was subject to leading edge permits as required by the crane standard Onni provided to WorkSafe in July 2023.
While the WorkSafe report noted a worker had been injured during the Jan. 25 incident, no other information about the worker was provided.
WorkSafe told the Burnaby NOW more penalties may be imposed after the investigation into the incident is complete.
The NOW has reached out to Onni and is waiting to hear back.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on X/Twitter @CorNaylor
Email [email protected]
