More than 100 people were evacuated from homes and businesses near the Jersey City, NJ, waterfront Jan. 16 when it appeared that a construction crane was in danger of falling.
Attached to the side of a building in which more than half of 29 floors have been completed, the crane’s boom apparently overextended and began to tilt due to an electrical malfunction. Officials said the unit’s operator felt a shift and was warned by computer that the crane was tipping.
Authorities shut down three blocks of the waterfront area, which is across the Hudson River from New York City. Although an estimated 1,000 people live near the job site, most were at work at the time, police said.
According to city officials, a mobile crane was expected to stablize the tipping crane, whose owner, Morrow Cranes of North Carolina, was expected to send two engineers.
