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OSHA Cites South Carolina Contractor For Crane Collapses

OSHA Cites South Carolina Contractor for Crane Collapses At Maybank Bridge Project; Proposes $66,500 in Penalties

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration today cited Republic Contracting Corporation and proposed $66,500 in penalties following two crane collapses at the company's Maybank Highway Bridge construction site. The citations also cover safety hazards found later at another site during a joint federal and state inspection.

Republic employees were constructing support columns for the new bridge near Johns Island when the first accident occurred Aug. 16. A crane collapsed while lifting a reinforced steel cage weighing about 100,000 pounds from a barge to the inside of a bridge column form. Parts of the crane fell into traffic lanes of the two-lane Stono River Bridge that is still used by the general public. No one was injured.

Although the state of South Carolina administers its own occupational safety and health plan, federal OSHA conducted the investigation because the accident occurred on a floating barge located in navigable waters. Evidence from the investigation which began Aug. 18, revealed that the crane had not been attached to the barge; equipment required to safely lift the load was missing from the crane and the crane's computer warning system had been by-passed.

The agency issued three serious citations with total proposed penalties of $9,000.

On Sept. 12, another Republic crane, at the same construction site, overturned narrowly missing several yachts moored at a nearby marina. The operator sustained minor cuts and bruises. Federal officials found that this crane also had not been secured to the floating barge. The company received one willful citation with a proposed penalty of $49,500 for failing to secure the crane.

The company also received two serious citations with proposed penalties totaling $5,750 for failing to properly inspect the crane before putting it into use and for safety hazards that occurred a few days later when the company began a welding and cutting operation to recover the overturned crane.

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