Rough Tuesday last month in Houston nearly got me fired

I was on a tower crane lifting steel beams for a 10 story building near downtown. Got up there at 6am and the wind was already gusting 25 mph, but the foreman said push through. By 11 I had a beam swing way too hard and clipped a scaffolding edge, bent the hell out of it. Superintendent came running over screaming about delays and I told him straight up wind limits exist for a reason. Has anyone else had to fight a foreman on shutting down for weather?

2 comments

2 Comments

hugo_schmidt1mo ago

@graygonzalez right on the money, had a foreman once in Austin try to run a boom lift through 40mph gusts before a lightning strike finally shut us down lmao

graygonzalez1mo ago

HOLY SHIT, you clipped a scaffolding edge with a steel beam swinging that fast? That's a direct ticket to a catastrophic failure, not just a scratch on the metal. I can't believe the foreman didn't care about the wind until something actually got wrecked.