Had a close call with a load swing on a high-rise job in Dallas

I was up on the 40th floor of a new build, moving a big steel beam with a Liebherr 750. A sudden gust of wind caught it and the load started spinning pretty bad. I had to drop the hook speed and use the trolley to dampen the swing, which took like a full minute to get under control. Anyone have a better method for handling a spin in high winds?

4 comments

4 Comments

harper_burns592mo ago

Scary stuff, glad you got it under control. Skyler217 is right, those minutes are the worst. Sounds like you did exactly what you had to do up there.

matthewking1d ago

That Dallas wind is no joke. Had a 30-foot I-beam start doing the same thing on a job near Fort Worth last spring and it took everything I had just to keep it from wrapping around the tower crane. @grantnelson nailed it about the center of gravity too, found out later our rigging was off by about 4 inches on that beam and it made the spin way worse than it needed to be.

grantnelson2mo ago

Yeah, those minutes feeling like hours is the worst part. Have you tried checking the load's center of gravity before the pick? A slightly off-center rigging point can make a spin way worse in the wind.

skyler2172mo ago

Man that sounds intense, did you have a tagline on it? I had a similar thing happen with a precast panel last fall, wind just GRABBED it. Honestly your method is pretty much what we do too, slow everything right down and try to ride it out. Those minutes feel like hours when you're watching it spin up there.