New CIG Guidance on Ready to Work Checks

CIG 2506 - Guidance for Safe and Correct Rigging of Mobile and Crawler Cranes

The CPA’s Crane Interest Group (CIG have just released a new publication on the safe and correct rigging of cranes and provides good practice guidance to ensure that once cranes (mobile and crawler) are rigged or assembled, that sufficient checks are made to ensure that they are safe before being put into service.

There have been incidents, albeit rare, where the crane has not been rigged correctly, either to the approved lift plan or to the manufacturer’s instructions. The guidance in this publication should significantly reduce the probability of these incidents. It would be the duty of the Appointed Person to ensure that ’pre-operational’ checks are carried out before the crane is put into service and the ’pre-lift’ check process supports the AP in this regard. Although they would not need to have an in-depth knowledge as to how the crane is assembled - as that is the role of the crane operator, they should ensure that any pre-operational checks are included within the safe system of work.

This pre-lift check process will ensure that the crane is rigged in accordance with the lift plan as well as the manufacturer’s instructions, and should mitigate any errors made during the rigging process.

CIG 2506 can be downloaded free of charge from https://www.cpa.uk.net/safety-and-technical-publications/mobile-and-crawler-crane-guidance