Crane site can stay open, says safety body
Anxious Ringsend residents, who live under the shadow of the stricken 200ft high crane, want all work on the Danninger Ltd site to stop pending publication of a full HSA report. They are also seeking a meeting with the owner of the Barrow Street construction site, Liam Carroll.
The company has agreed to have all other eight cranes on the eight-acre site thoroughly examined to ensure they do not pose an unacceptable hazard to site workers or the public, according to the HSA.
In a letter to local Fianna Fáil TD Eoin Ryan, HSA inspector Padraig Delaney warned it was “not acceptable for cranes to sling loads over residents’ houses or gardens. If evidence of this practice is forthcoming to the HSA we will address this with the contractor with a view to ensuring that this practice ceases.”
Yesterday, Seán Kelly, a resident of Gordon Street for the past 40 years, said residents had witnessed cranes loaded with blocks being swung over their gardens. “They have been carrying stuff,” he said.
“We have seen it, blocks and cradles and all that type of stuff, being carried across my back garden, actually. We go out and we just wave up to the fellow to try and tell him to stop,” he said.
A spokesman for Danninger Ltd said yesterday he was not in a position to comment on the matter.
The immediate area around the crane is still cordoned off for safety reasons, due to the risk of parts of the broken jib falling. Health and safety inspectors are insisting that no construction work, apart from remedial work, is carried out in this exclusion zone.
The cause of the incident has not yet been established. HSA inspectors believe they may be able to discover the cause when the crane is lowered to the ground.
The HSA has said it is impossible to say how long it would be before the report into the crane incident was completed.
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