'We're concerned about it shifting, we're concerned about it rolling over'
Crews have begun removing a huge collapsed crane that has blocked a major street in British Columbia.
Dismantling and removal of the crane that collapsed across West 41st Avenue is not expected to stretch beyond today, said Saul Schwebs, Vancouver chief building official, said in a report from The Canadian Press.
The process of removing the crane is filled with challenges and safety concerns, said Schwebs.
"We know how to erect cranes and we know how to take them down," he said. "How to remove them off a street is a different matter … we're concerned about it shifting, we're concerned about it rolling over. We still have occupied houses next door."
However, crews still need to repair all the infrastructure damaged on Aug. 6 when a fire at a construction site sent the crane crashing down, reported CP in an article published in The Albertan.
"There's about a four-cubic-metre divot in 41st Avenue that is going to need to be filled in by folks from engineering," Schwebs said at a press briefing on site Wednesday.
Vancouver Fire Rescue Services deputy chief of operations Trevor Connelly said the investigation continues into the cause of the fire, but it has been determined to be “accidental”.
The cause, however, is yet to be determined.
"This building, in this stage of construction, there's a lot of tradespeople working in there, so there's a number of potential causes. But we have not been able to nail down the exact cause at this time."
