5.6 Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER), Crane Safety & Rigging

Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER), Crane Safety & Rigging

Lifting operations involving mobile cranes, tower cranes, excavators lifting loads, telehandlers, passenger hoists, and rigging tackle represent some of the highest-risk activities on construction sites. The failure of a crane or lifting accessory can cause catastrophic structural destruction and multiple fatalities. The Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER) work in tandem with PUWER 1998 to establish legal requirements for planning, supervising, inspecting, and safely executing all lifting operations.

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1. Scope of LOLER 1998: Lifting Equipment vs. Lifting Accessories

LOLER applies to all employers and site managers who own, operate, or control lifting equipment. The regulation distinguishes between two primary categories:

• Lifting Equipment: Work equipment used for lifting or lowering loads. Examples include mobile cranes, tower cranes, excavators fitted with lifting eyes, forklift trucks, telehandlers, scissors lifts, and goods/passenger hoists.
• Lifting Accessories (Tackle): Equipment used to attach the load to the lifting machine. Examples include chain slings, wire rope slings, synthetic webbing slings, shackles, eyebolts, spreader beams, vacuum lifters, and lifting beams.

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2. Planning and Categorization of Lifting Operations (Regulation 8)

LOLER Regulation 8 mandates that every lifting operation must be properly planned by a competent person, appropriately supervised, and carried out in a safe manner.

The Lift Plan and Duty Roles

All lifting operations require a written Lift Plan (Method Statement) produced by an Appointed Person (AP).

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                        LOLER DUTY HOLDER RESPONSIBILITIES                         |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  [ APPOINTED PERSON (AP) ]   • Overall authority. Authors Lift Plan, selects      |
|                                crane, calculates ground loading & sling geometry. |
|                                                                                   |
|  [ CRANE SUPERVISOR ]        • Direct site supervisor. Controls the lift area,    |
|                                enforces Lift Plan, and monitors weather/wind.     |
|                                                                                   |
|  [ SLINGER / SIGNALLER ]     • Inspects tackle, attaches load, verifies center    |
|                                of gravity, and directs crane via signals/radio.   |
|                                                                                   |
|  [ CRANE OPERATOR ]          • Operates crane within rated capacity limits; obeys |
|                                emergency stop signals from any worker.            |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Lift Categories under BS 7121 (Code of Practice for Safe Use of Cranes):

• Basic Lift: Routine lift of a load of known weight over clear ground with uncomplicated crane setup.
• Intermediate Lift: Lifts involving blind spots, hazards in the swing arc, or lifting near energized structures.
• Complex Lift: Tandem lifting (two cranes sharing a load), lifting suspended personnel, or lifting over live railways or highways. Requires complex engineering calculations by the AP.

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3. Statutory Thorough Examination Schedule (Regulation 9)

Under LOLER Regulation 9, lifting equipment and accessories must undergo a rigorous Thorough Examination by an independent Competent Person (typically an engineer surveyor from an insurance inspection body).

Mandatory Examination Intervals Table

Site Management Compliance: Every item of lifting tackle on site must feature a valid inspection tag or color-coded badge. Operating with out-of-date or un-marked tackle is a direct criminal breach of LOLER.

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4. Crane Stability, Outriggers, and Ground Conditions

The primary cause of crane overturns is inadequate ground support under outrigger jacks.

Ground Bearing and Outrigger Controls:

• Outrigger Deployment: Crane outriggers must ALWAYS be fully extended and locked in accordance with manufacturer instructions. Partial outrigger extension is prohibited unless specifically calculated in the Lift Plan.
• Spreader Pads (Mats): Outrigger jacks must rest on heavy-duty timber soleboards or engineered steel/composite spreader pads to distribute point loads over a larger surface area.
• Ground Assessment: Ground bearing capacity must be formally verified by a structural engineer prior to positioning heavy cranes near excavations, retaining walls, or backfilled trenches.
• Automatic Safe Load Indicators (ASLI / RCI): Mobile cranes must be fitted with calibrated Rated Capacity Indicators that warn the operator visually and audibly when approaching load limits and automatically cut dangerous crane movements upon 100% load reach.

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5. Rigging, Slinging, and Load Geometry Mechanics

Improper slinging causes loads to slip, swing out of control, or collapse.

Critical Rigging Rules:

• Working Load Limit (WLL) & Safe Working Load (SWL): Every sling and shackle must be clearly stamped with its WLL. Operatives must NEVER exceed rated limits.
• Sling Included Angle De-Rating: As the included angle between sling legs increases, internal tension in each leg rises dramatically:

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                        SLING ANGLE MULTIPLIER (DE-RATING)                         |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  Leg Angle 0°  (Vertical) ===> Factor = 1.00  (Full Rated WLL per leg)          |
|  Leg Angle 60° (Equilateral) => Factor = 0.86  (14% Reduction in WLL)             |
|  Leg Angle 90° (Right Angle) => Factor = 0.70  (30% Reduction in WLL)             |
|  Leg Angle 120° (MAXIMUM)  ===> Factor = 0.50  (50% REDUCTION IN CAPACITY!)       |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

• Maximum Leg Angle: Sling included angles must NEVER exceed 120 degrees.
• Choke Hitch De-Rating: Wrapping a sling around a load in a choke hitch reduces its rated WLL by 20% (multiply WLL by 0.8) due to severe stress concentration at the bite point.
• Tackle Rejection Criteria: Slings must be immediately destroyed if they exhibit cuts, fraying, chemical damage, heat singeing, deformed shackle pins, or missing identification tags.
• Tag Lines: Non-conductive fiber tag lines must be attached to long or awkward loads to enable ground operatives to control load orientation without standing beneath suspended hazards.