What the regulation says
Tower cranes in BC sit under Part 14 of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. 5 sections do most of the work:
- 14.2(6) — a tower, hammerhead or self-erecting tower crane must meet CSA Standard Z248-2004, the Code for Tower Cranes. The Regulation still names the 2004 edition; the current published edition of the standard is Z248:17.
- 14.13 — the crane must be inspected and maintained often enough, and thoroughly enough, that every component can still do its original job with an adequate margin of safety. Maintenance or repair must be done by, or under the direct supervision of, a qualified person, and any repair to a load-bearing component must be certified by a professional engineer or the original manufacturer.
- 14.14, with section 4.9 of Part 4 — records of that inspection and maintenance must be kept, signed each shift by the operator, and the detailed reports kept for the whole service life of the machine.
- 14.77 — structural components must be inspected by non-destructive testing and certified by a professional engineer before erection, and again if the crane stays up beyond 12 months.
- 14.79 — the manufacturer's manual and every record since that certification must be at the workplace, not in the office.
The Regulation is public and free to read at BC Laws, and WorkSafeBC publishes guidelines for Part 14 alongside it.
Where CSA Z248 comes in
The Regulation does not tell you how often to grease a slewing ring. It tells you the crane must meet CSA Z248, and Z248 sets out the inspection regime — daily checks before use, weekly and monthly inspections, an annual inspection, an operational test, rope inspection, and a set of special inspections triggered by events rather than dates.
CSA Z248 is a purchased standard and its wording is licensed, so we do not reproduce it here. If you are responsible for a tower crane in BC you should own a copy — it is available from CSA directly.
What Z248 asks for, by how often
Counting the separate requirements rather than quoting them, this is the shape of the Z248 inspection regime as we run it across our own fleet:
| How often | Items |
|---|---|
| Every day it is used | 19 |
| Every week | 12 |
| Every month | 25 |
| Every 6 months | 1 |
| Every year | 10 |
| On erection, climbing or dismantling | 67 |
The event-triggered ones are the ones that get missed. 67 of the 134 are not on any calendar — they fall due when a crane is erected, climbed or dismantled, and two of them fall due after the erection crew has driven away.
And where the manufacturer comes in
Z248 says what to inspect and how often. It does not give you the brake shoe clearance, the torque figure or the wear limit — those are in the manual for that exact model, and they are not interchangeable between machines. The hoist brake shoe clearance on one of our saddle-jib machines is not the same figure as on our luffer.
Which is why a real maintenance programme is two schedules running side by side, not one. Our saddle-jib machine carries 112 separate requirements and our luffer 101, and they do not overlap — different intervals, different figures, different components. Neither can be run off the other's checklist.
Who is allowed to do it
A qualified person, which the Regulation defines by knowledge, training and experience rather than by ticket. In practice that means somebody who knows that model, has the manual, and can be shown to have done the work. Operating the crane is different — section 14.34.1 requires a valid operator's certificate.
The foundation is different and stricter. Section 14.74 requires the foundation for a tower crane to be certified by a professional engineer, and the bearing capacity of the supporting surface to be determined by a professional engineer; shoring, bracing and any connection to the building need the same certification. In practice the engineer or their designate attends before the pour, because nobody certifies a foundation they never saw.
What you have to be able to produce
Records are not a formality here — they are the requirement. If a WorkSafeBC officer or a general contractor asks how a crane was maintained, the answer is a file, not a memory. In practice you want, per machine: the inspection and maintenance record, the annual inspection, the operational test, rope inspections, the foundation certificate, and the erection, climb and dismantle records.
Why this cannot be run off a whiteboard
Between the standard and the 2 manuals, our own fleet runs on 347 separate requirements — 134 from Z248 and 213 from the manufacturers. That is not a boast, it is the reason this is hard to keep in somebody's head, and the reason a crane that arrives with its records in order is worth more than one that does not.
Related guides
- What a real tower crane maintenance schedule contains — the four clocks a crane runs on, and how many items sit on each.
- Tower crane records you have to keep — what to hold per machine, and what a contractor asks for first.