Photo by AP Wideworld/Joe Woolhead Related Links: Federal Safety Regulators To Boost Tower-Crane Checks Enforcing the New Crane Safety Rule In New York City, construction photographer Joe Woolhead's captivating shot of a sky-high crane inspection atop One World Trade Center went viral in late July. The crew works for Tim Barry (at far right), operations manager for CAN-USA Inc., an industrial ropes access firm.Working at such extreme heights is "like looking at a movie," Barry tells ENR. "You block it out in a surreal way and just get on with your work." Some news reports got it wrong by saying

Photo Courtesy of Terex Corp. Though ASME P30 may not define a critical lift, it will lay out considerations, such as potential property damage or public risk. Related Links: Were Dallas Crane Bolts Loosened Too Early? Judge Acquits NYC Crane Owner It may be hard to believe, but no industry standard or regulation exists for how to plan a lift. Whether crews are using a 10-ton crane to pick up pipe or a 1,000-ton rig to hoist a pressure vessel, contractors mainly figure out how to do it safely with no industry input. An ASME P30 document could change all

Murray Johnson had performed this sort of heavy lifting before, but the previous feat was just a warm-up. This time, the executive engineer for North Vancouver, British Columbia-based Buckland & Taylor Ltd. is shooting for a world record. He and his colleagues believe that the Milton-Madison Bridge, now being built over the Ohio River between Kentucky and Indiana, would involve the biggest truss slide in history. Related Links: Rapid Bridge-Building Toolkit Nears Final Field Tests Milton-Madison Bridge Website "We have specialized over the years in many crazy—I mean high-end—erection schemes. From that point of view, we have confidence," says Johnson.

Freightliner ranked highest in customer satisfaction for both the vocational and on-highway segments. Related Links: Retooling for Clean Diesels Read the J.D. Power Results Owners of heavy-duty trucks, such as Class 8 dump trucks, concrete mixers and tractor trailers, report increasing quality problems due to the latest round of clean-diesel regulations, according to a study from J.D. Power and Associates released late last month.Trucks that are one year old decreased in quality from the previous model year, says J.D. Power, which, like ENR, is a unit of the McGraw-Hill Cos. Problems rose 9% and are mostly related

Related Links: New Clean Diesels Hit the Jobsite Carbon Regulations Drive Diesel Lubricant Standards Diesel exhaust, which is common on construction sites due to the prevalence of heavy equipment and trucks, causes lung cancer and may increase the risk of bladder cancer, says the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of the World Health Organization. The agency announced the new health risk on June 12.Diesel advocates counter that modern regulations have brought emissions to near-zero levels. Though WHO recognizes this, it says that "while the amount of particulates and chemicals are reduced with these changes, it is

Photo Courtesy of Chrysler Group LLC The Ram 1500 gets a mild exterior redesign for 2013, but under the hood it carries new hardware that promises fuel efficiency. Related Links: Test Drive: 2012 Ram Tradesman 1500 More ENR Equipment News PickupTrucks.com Chrysler started out performing a mild refresh of the Ram 1500, but its engineers got carried away and have packed the 2013 truck with features never seen on a light-duty pickup."We changed every area of the truck, from a newly designed frame with air suspension to a new eight-speed transmission [and] a new interior," says Fred Diaz, Ram president

Related Links: More ENR Product and Equipment News Video Review: 2012 Ram Tradesman Just about every breed of pickup truck can be had in a bare-bones, work-truck package, but Ram has a special name for it: Tradesman. While many value-line trucks offer austerity on all fronts, Ram takes a different tack by assembling a more thoughtful mix of practical, low-cost features that appeal to the construction class. For example, a V-8 engine is standard on the Tradesman, but you still get to crank the windows by hand. This is a truck for a purist, not a weekend enthusiast.Introduced last year,

PHOTO BY RICHARD KORMAN Maria Leo (right), mother of crane operator Donald Leo, expressed disappointment with the ruling. Related Links: Judge Acquits NYC Crane Owner A state court judge in Manhattan has cleared crane owner James F. Lomma of all charges related to a 2008 tower- crane collapse in New York City that killed a crane operator and a sewer worker. The saga is not over, though, as the victims' attorneys prepare to mount a civil trial against Lomma.Judge Daniel Conviser declared Lomma not guilty of all six counts, which included second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment. Some

Courtesy Volvo Trucks North America Mean Green beat its own speed records last month at Wendover Airfield in Utah. Related Links: New Natural-Gas Pickup Trucks DOE's Chu at the Green Truck Summit Proving once again that green technology and performance can come in the same package, Volvo has shattered its own record for the world's fastest hybrid truck.The Sweden-based company's modified diesel-electric haul tractor, dubbed "Mean Green," beat its own top speed April 27 at Wendover Airfield in Utah.The truck, which is equipped with a diesel engine and electric motor that generate a combined 2,100 horsepower and 5,000 lb-ft of

Courtesy Joe Woolhead/Silverstein Properties New York City is moving to a national testing model for licensing crane operators. Related Links: In One Week, Crane Operators Receive A License to Learn Video: Learning to Fly Crane regulation in New York City has had its ups and downs, but the city hopes to make work safer by boosting the requirements of operators working there. One part of the city's controversial new licensing program, announced earlier this month, is outsourcing crane operator exams to the private sector. The move has attracted praise and criticism alike.By July 1, 2013, all crane operators working in