The first ever attempt to cross Antarctica in winter, dubbed The Coldest Journey, has been abandoned after just 313km of the planned 3,822km.

The five-man team set off on 21 March already a man down after expedition leader Sir Ranulph Fiennes was forced to bail out with frostbite, partly caused by the onset of diabetes.

However, in the face of a crevasse field that cannot be passed even with the pair of specially adapted Cat D6N tracked tractors, the adventure has now been called off.

With progress slowed by technical difficulties, fuel consumption had become excessive. Proceeding further would have been “reckless and irresponsible”, said team leader Brian Newham.

The sheer weight of the stores and fuel required to sustain the five men for a year in the remotest part of the vast icy continent was in excess of 150 tonnes.

The five will now pitch camp and stay where they are for the duration of the winter, concentrating on the scientific experiments that had always provided the rationale for the expedition. For the next five months, no matter what problems they encounter, no known search and rescue facilities exist in Antarctica during the winter.

While there is no glossing over the failure of the expedition, the organisers are trying to accentuate the positive. The 313km covered, climbing from sea level to almost 3,000 meters up to the polar plateau over three months, is the furthest distance and longest time that any expedition has travelled in the polar winter months, they say. With temperatures down to -50⁰C and near permanent darkness, it has been tough going.

“None of us wants to contemplate the thought of not completing the challenge of crossing Antarctica in winter,” said Brian Newham. “However, we have reached an unexpected crevasse field which, from satellite images and our own local survey using ground penetrating radar (GPR), we believe could extend up to 100km to our South. The crevasses are certainly bigger and deeper than any we have previously encountered. They could easily swallow our vehicles and are deceptively hard to spot in the darkness and snow cover: dark and difficult conditions.  In my judgement there is no real choice, I believe it would be reckless and irresponsible to press on and risk the obvious dangers while incurring excessive fuel consumption. The greatest success can now be achieved by completing the scientific studies with which we have been tasked.”

“We all feel very supportive of the unbelievably difficult decision that Brian and his colleagues have made,” said Sir Ranulph Fiennes. “We have commitments not only to research organisations but also to schools across Britain.  The communications from the team to schools will help children understand how different the Antarctic is to what they see around them and how observations of extremes help scientists to understand how the global system works.  The time it has taken to both ascend to the plateau and negotiate horrendous crevasse terrain now renders it virtually impossible to complete a continental winter traverse. Moreover, if they continue South, they will have to commit their time exclusively to safe travel through continuing crevasse territory and this will have a very detrimental effect on their ability to collect data. The science will provide a lasting legacy. The first winter crossing, while very much our original aim, will not.”

Lessons about construction machinery will also continue to be learned in the months ahead.

Caterpillar dealer Finning supplied the Cat D6N machines and the two mechanics responsible for driving and maintaining them. Finning director Jason Howlett said: “The continued safety of our engineers is paramount.  The lessons learned from Spencer Smirl and Richmond Dyke’s Antarctica experience will be especially important. They provide Finning and Caterpillar an opportunity to explore in depth how our engineers, the machines and the unique modifications continue to perform in such harsh conditions, and this invaluable knowledge will make an important contribution to the development of future equipment and engineering solutions.  We are extremely proud of both Spencer and Richmond and of how the customised Cat D6Ns have performed so far on this extraordinary journey.”

Dr Michael Stroud, who is pioneering a study of the effects of isolation and the physiological impact of the hostile conditions on the team members as part of a European Space Agency programme called ‘White Mars’, said that the change in objective could make the psychological studies even more interesting. “No one has remained at high altitude in a mobile camp in Antarctica throughout the winter before,” he said. “They could experience temperatures as low as -70⁰C and coupled with the permanent darkness and claustrophobic conditions, the stresses will be all too apparent. Future space travel will require similar endurance. This is the perfect terrestrial testing ground.”

Team member Ian Prickett filed this video diary entry on 30 May 2013:

Richmond Dyke filed this video blog entry on 5 June 2013:

HE Services has invested £500,000 in a fleet of Manitou telehandlers.

HE is a long-standing and loyal JCB customer but was rather taken by the six-metre Manitou MT625.

“The Manitou 625 is an impressive telehandler with surprising capabilities far beyond its compact size,” said HE managing director Peter Durey. “A 6m lift height and load capacity of 2500kg, its size is ideal when working within a confined space but needing the capabilities of a larger machine. Cab access is easy and welcoming with the controls being quick and responsive.”

HE Services is based in Strood in Kent. The local Manitou dealer, Glosrose Construction, is nearby in Hollingbourne.

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Bauer Spezialtiefbau has won its biggest-ever contract to date in Germany.

As part of a joint venture, Bauer has been contracted to carry out the specialist foundation engineering works on the tunnels and supporting walls for the new double-tracked bypass rail link between Hanau and Nantenbach in the Spessart region. The project is worth some €47m (£40m) to Bauer.

The roughly 7km-long new track will reduce noise pollution for local residents. The work also includes the building of new stations and the renovation of a number of other stations. The line will replace the existing route through the Schwarzkopf tunnel, which cannot be modernised for economic and technical reasons.

The work assigned to Bauer on the two contracted sections includes the installation of 53,000m² of piled wall as well as 8km of anchors for the four new tunnel sections. One of the technical challenges of the project is the need to drill into hard rock. Several Bauer BG 28 and BG 40 rotary drilling rigs along with anchor drilling rigs will be deployed. At peak times up to 10 rigs will be operating simultaneously.

Chairman of the Bauer management board Professor Thomas Bauer said: "This is a great contract for us in our home market, and it is indeed our biggest contract in Germany to date. After having recently completed work on the large-scale Luise-Kiesselbach-Platz project in Munich, we have now once again secured a healthy utilsation of our capacities in Germany for the medium term."

BAUER Spezialtiefbau GmbH is scheduled to start work on the project at the end of the year. The work will take about four years to complete. Most of it will be carried out during 2014 and 2015.

Wiltshire-based Eagle Plant has increased its fleet of Morooka tracked dumpers with the purchase of 12 new machines from Cautrac, the UK importer.

With the latest purchase, Eagle Plant now has 30 units.

The new dumpers cover payloads ranging from three to 11 tonnes, including four MST800VD models supplied with bodies having three opening sides for greater operational flexibility.

The tracked dumpers are available from Eagle Plant’s main depot in Westbury and also its new branch in Bury, Lancashire.

Eagle Plant director Alan Cradock said: “I first saw a Morooka machine at a trade show back in 2001 and I could immediately see the potential for a dumper that could pretty much go anywhere and leave the ground in a condition requiring little, if no reinstatement work.”

Norman Emerson & Sons, a Northern Irish supplier of construction materials, has taken delivery of the first unit of Rapid’s new compact mobile batching plant.

The Rapid Transbatch is replacing the very first batching plant ever built by Rapid, purchased more than 40 years ago, at Emerson’s site in Ardmore, County Armagh.

The new mobile batching plant offers outputs of 40m³, 60m³ and 100m³ per hour.  Stairs and access walkways fold and dismantle for transport in a single road-towable unit. It takes five days to set up.

As standard, Transbatch features four 10m³ aggregate bins with pneumatic discharge doors, a 1000mm weighing belt and a 1,750kg cement weigh hopper with aeration and pneumatic vibrator.

Group managing director George Emerson said: "Rapid's Transbatch has provided us with an excellent solution for our concrete batching requirements. Its high quality compact design, ease of mobility and fast set up has made it a superb choice."

The Transbatch is pictured below under construction, and at the bottom in operation.

Quarry operator and civil engineering contractor GD Harries & Sons has bought four new machines from its local Case dealer, Riverlea.

The contractor, from Narberth in West Wales, has taken two Case CX350C crawler excavators, a 1021F wheeled loader and an 821F for use in its seven quarry sites throughout the region. All have been supplied in standard specification.

In the past 18 months Harries has acquired four granite and two limestone quarries. The company also runs three concrete production plants and three aggregate coating facilities, and has expanded its interests into road surfacing and other civil engineering contracting operations alongside the quarry works.

The four Case machines have been bought to replace existing machinery as part of an overall plan to upgrade the fleet. The 35-tonne CX350C excavators (pictured below) are now the largest machines in the fleet and, along with the two wheeled loaders, are expected to support an increase in production levels at the quarry operations.

“We did price other equipment but Riverlea was able to put together the best deal for us in terms of price and quality,” said Harries business manager Janet Phillips. “Also [Riverlea sales manager] Paul Austin pulled out all the stops in terms of customer service and this mix left us with no alternative but to stay with Case machinery.”

The training of tower crane erectors, fitters and operators should be harmonised across Europe, with licences recognised across national borders.

That is the call from the manufacturers’ organisation, the Committee for European Construction Equipment (CECE).

Dr Peter Schiefer, head of CECE’s tower crane a section and CEO of German manufacturer Wolffkran, said that crane technology had become more sophisticated but in many counties the training of fitters and drivers had not kept pace with developments.

“Our goal is to increase safety on construction sites – Europe-wide. This is why we need harmonised trainings of crane fitters and crane drivers,” he said.

The European tower crane manufacturers group has proposed harmonised European licences for tower crane fitters and for tower cranes drivers, with minimum training requirements set out by the manufacturers.

The European tower crane manufacturers are calling for minimum requirements for trainings followed by a final written and practical test as complimentary for tower crane drivers. Minimum contents of tower crane driver training should be knowledge about national rules and regulations, general safety obligations, crane operating techniques, rigging and load carrying ear, understanding of load diagrams, stability and accident prevention as well as practical exercises driving an operational sequence. 

Training for fitters should include: an understanding of the modularity of a tower crane; placement and levelling; correct adjustment and safety devices; stability conditions in service an out of service during erection and dismantling; and a basic knowledge of electrics.

Even in Germany legislation is currently not that strict, CECE said. Tower crane operators only have to give evidence that they are capable of driving the machines. This can be done by training and tests offered by a private organisation called ZUMBau. It is similar to the UK regime, but without the health and safety test. Italy has recently introduced legislation (D.Lgs n.81/2008) setting out requirements for operator training but there are no plans for anything similar for fitters.

Further details on CECE’s recommendations are available on its website, here

Bell Equipment UK has promoted Nick Learoyd to be its new managing director.

He steps up from sales & marketing manager to take over from Neville Paynter, who has gone to head up the new Bell Equipment North America division, to launch the Bell brand into the USA and Canada. 

Prior to joining Bell, Mr lLearoyd worked for Alfred McAlpine, where he was a regular customer of Bell articulated dump trucks.

“I have seen over many years how Bell has maintained its commitment to continuous improvement, backed by the passion to offer the best solutions on the market,” he said.

China Petroleum First Construction Company has awarded Dorman Long Technology a contract for the design and supply of a 5,000-tonne capacity jacking tower system.

The MYQ5000 system will be used for the erection of heavy petrochemical vessels and will begin work in early 2014. The system will initially be used for projects in China, but has been designed for use throughout the world.

The system has new features including self-erect/dismantle, walking with the load and central wireless control. It will feature four 1,394t-capacity strand jacks for lifting at rates of up to 23m an hour. It is designed to erect petrochemical vessels up to 5,000t and up to 160m high. Vessels can be moved longitudinally and transversely after lifting. In the longitudinal direction, the tower and vessel move together along a track. The vessels can also be rotated after lifting using a swivel incorporated into the modular lifting beam.

Two tower system has been designed with a small footprint. It can be freestanding to heights of 90m, with guys required for taller heights.

The self-erection/dismantling system uses a purpose-designed 20m/hour jacking system located at the base of each tower and able to handle 12m tower sections. All elements of the tower system have been designed for ease of transport between sites and for fast assembly and disassembly when on site. The tower system can be bolted down to concrete foundations, or supported on load spreading mats.

GPS stations located at the top of each tower for monitoring tower verticality. The GPS data is integrated into the system’s computer controls.

Contractors are being reminded of the need to keep their construction sites and plant secure in the wake of the daredevil antics of a tower crane climber going viral on the internet.

In the past week, nearly a million people have seen James Kingston's YouTube video of him climbing a 76m-high tower crane in Southampton and swinging with one hand from the top, high above the docks.

Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) has issued a warning that the industry must take action to reduce the chances of some idiot killing themselves on a construction site in a bid for glory.

CPA chief executive Colin Wood said: “Principal contractors must take responsibility for site security, and make sure that unauthorised people cannot get in, whatever the time of day or night. Construction sites and construction plant can be hazardous places for the untrained, and it goes without saying that climbing a tower crane without proper protective measures is just foolhardy and dangerous.

“These irresponsible publicity seekers just do not consider the unnecessary stress and upset this stunt would have caused for innocent people if it had gone wrong. They also do not consider the impact on the emergency services who may have to put themselves at risk to rescue trespassers who get into trouble. There are many controlled opportunities for thrill seekers which do not involve trespassing or risking a detrimental impact on construction personnel or the general public.”

There is a general duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 Section 3 for contractors to safeguard members of the public, as well as a clear duty under Regulation 13(6) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 for the contractor to take reasonable steps to prevent unauthorised access to the site.

Mt Wood added: “The long summer evenings and good weather may act as an extra incentive for the thrill-seeker, but safety and security are year-round issues. The whole industry has a role to play here.”

However, he recognised that his warning could itself add fuel to the fire. “The CPA thinks that care must be taken to avoid adding further publicity to a dangerous practice. This can only increase the reward for the publicity seekers and encourage copycats.”

US tech firm Trimble has bought Actronic Holdings, a New Zealand supplier of weighing technology for construction machinery.

Auckland-based Actronic produces the Loadrite weighing system for wheel loaders, excavators, conveyors and waste collection vehicles.

Loadrite extends Trimble’s Connected Site portfolio by adding information about weight as well as positioning and usage data.

“The acquisition of Actronic Technologies empowers machine operators, foremen, supervisors and project managers to understand machine performance and progress across the entire site within the aggregate, construction, mining and waste industries,” said Roz Buick, vice president and general manager of Trimble’s Heavy Civil Construction Division. “Loadrite weighing systems expand the richness of the Connected Site information we collect from machines and complement the productivity and reporting capabilities we already provide our customers.”

The price paid by Trimble for the privately held company was not disclosed.

A South Wales steel fabricator has been fined £10,000 after a man was knocked out of a scissor lift by an overhead crane in its workshop.

The incident happened in the fabrication workshop of Dollcast Ltd at the Village Farm Industrial Estate, Pyle, on 14 January 2012. The victim was using a scissor lift at a height of 6m to replace high level lights when it was hit by the gantry crane. He fell to the factory floor and broke five ribs.

An investigation by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) found that Dollcast had failed to put in place a suitable system of work.

Dollcast Ltd of Dunraven Street, Tonypandy, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £9,671 in costs.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Lee Schilling said: "This was a serious incident and, in a fall of six metres, this worker was lucky not to have lost his life. It was also needless and avoidable.

"The incident could have easily been prevented if a simple, suitable system of work had been used by Dollcast, including the secure isolation of the overhead crane from its power supply.

"This would have been a straightforward process of establishing a break in the power supply, normally by using a lockable isolator switch, and then securing the switch in the 'off' position using a padlock to prevent it being switched back on until the maintenance work had finished.

"Working at height is a significant risk activity across all industries. Last year more than 6,300 employees suffered major injuries following a fall. Working at height must always be properly planned."

JCB chief executive Alan Blake is to retire at the end of the year and will be succeeded by chief operating officer Graeme Macdonald.

Mr Blake has been with JCB for nearly 25 years and took over as chief executive in 2010 on the departure of Matthew Taylor, who quit not much more than a year into the job.

Graeme Macdonald, 45, was appointed group managing director of business operations at the same time and was subsequently made chief operating officer. He was previously instrumental in setting up the JCB factory in Savannah, Georgia as president of JCB Inc.

Mr Blake (pictured below) began his career with Westland Helicopters in Yeovil. As CEO of JCB, he has presided over the company’s return to sales and production growth against a backdrop of continued economic uncertainty around the world. He will remain as a senior advisor and board member of the company.

Fairfax Plant Hire, rapidly staking a claim to be Yorkshire’s fastest growing hire firm, has bought 10 Kubota KX015-4 excavators.

Fairfax plant manager Matthew Love said: “The new Kubota excavators will allow us to refresh our hire fleet with an industry-leading brand which has proved a great success with our customers in the past.

“As a company Fairfax have been delighted with the reliability, quality and resale value of the Japanese-manufactured excavators”.

Fairfax machines have also recently completed work at York Minster, where they were used by Brambledown Landscapes to landscape the new disabled access area (pictured below).

Kimberly Group chairman Ray Ledger has told customers that until the cause of last week’s fatal accident is determined, his new Genie Z-135 access platforms will be staying at ground level.

Mr Ledger said that the man who was killed last week while operating a brand new boom lift that tipped over was no novice. The accident happened at Kimberley’s Iver depot in west London, which borders the M25 motorway. The basket of the 135ft-high lift came down onto the motorway’s hard shoulder.

“The deceased was a highly qualified engineer and with several years’ experience working in the sector, and in fact was the depot foreman,” Mr Ledger said in a letter to customers.

He added: “We would also confirm that the machine was one of a batch of 13 new Z-135 machines delivered by Genie during the past six weeks.

“Following the incident we immediately took the decision to ground all our Genie Z-135s, pending the outcome of investigations by the Health & Safety Executive.

“We are aware that Genie have subsequently issued assurance on the safety of Z-135s but note that this assurance has been issued without the benefit of interrogating the system data held on the machine in question.

“At this stage, the outcome of the HSE investigation is not yet known and in our view no conclusions can be drawn regarding the reasons for the incident. In our opinion the only safe and responsible course of action is to re-affirm the grounding of all our Genie Z-135s until further notice.”

A motorist in Leith had a lucky escape on Friday morning when a crane dropped its load onto his car.

The driver was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary for shock. A construction worker was also taken to hospital for minor injuries.

The Health & Safety executive is investigating.

The crane was working on the £4m redevelopment of a former market hall into apartments on Great Junction Street for the Port of Leith Housing Association.

A Scottish Fire & Rescue spokeswoman said that the crane was lifting a panel when the straps “snapped” and the load dropped on tot eh lorry from which it was being lifted and a car alongside it.

The incident happened at approximately 10.40am. By 1pm the road was reopened to traffic.

A Sheffield company that crushes construction and demolition waste has been fined £300,000 after an employee was killed by an overturning skip lorry in Derbyshire.

David Vickers, 37, of Walton, was tipping a skip at Adis Scaffolding Ltd's site in Markham Lane, Duckmanton, when the incident happened on 22 July 2008.

Derby Crown Court heard last week (7 June) that Mr Vickers had got out of the cab of the truck he was driving to deploy the rear stabilisers before raising a skip using the lifting arms. However, as he did so the vehicle overturned and landed on top of him, causing fatal injuries. He died at the scene.

A subsequent investigation by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) found the skip was mis-hooked, with the hooks engaging on the lip of a base plate rather than a catch bar, the correct part of the skip. This meant that it tipped normally until reaching an angle of approximately 70 degrees, at which point it broke free and swung out backwards causing the front of the vehicle to lift several feet off the ground. During the course of tipping the offside outrigger retracted causing the lorry to tip over.

The HSE also established that there was no safe system of work for the skip operation, including how to handle mis-hooks and other foreseeable problems. It also found that there was inadequate training and instruction; that the skip lorry controls were not marked; and that the risk assessment for loading and unloading skips fell short of identifying all significant risks and controls.

Adis Scaffolding, now in liquidation but formerly of Queen Street, Sheffield, was fined £300,000 and ordered to pay £124,468 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

After the hearing HSE inspector Edward Walker said: "The failings by Adis Scaffolding Limited were substantial, ranging from unsuitable equipment, an inadequate risk assessment, inadequate training and instruction, and an absence of safe systems of work.

"These failings led to a situation where things went badly wrong, and where David was placed in an impossible situation. His tragic death could easily have been avoided with better planning, management and foresight."

Manchester’s Total Plant Hire has added two new SD130D Volvo soil compactors to its fleet from local dealer Howard Plant Sales.

The two 13-tonne compactors join six larger Volvo SD190s along with a couple of Volvo DD25w double drum rollers delivered at the end of 2012 and a range of Volvo compact excavators.

Managing director Tommy Halligan said: “We opted for the 13-tonne models as they give greater versatility on most of the projects they are deployed on.”

Both soil compaction rollers have been supplied with both smooth drum and optional bolt-on pad foot drum.

Lynch Plant Hire has placed an order for 150 of Hill Engineering’s External Coupler Sounder (ECS).

The ECS system is an external alarm that activates when a machine operator releases the bucket from the quick hitch and is deactivated once the bucket it reattached.  It warns surrounding site personnel to keep clear of the machine.

Lynch is co-operating with Hill on developing the system in field trials, with customer including Bam Nuttall, Skanska and Crossrail.

Lynch is also using Hill’s new Tefra coupler, which uses a positive locking system for excavator attachments rather than a gravity locking system, making the crucial safety feature active rather than passive.

 “When the dual locking quick hitch system was introduced we investigated what products were available on the market, after looking at other manufacturers, we chose to work with Hill Engineering,” said Merrill Lynch, operations director at Lynch Plant Hire.  “Hill’s range of quick couplers were tried and tested and were what we believed to be the safest and best-engineered quick hitch available.  Hill is a pioneering and forward thinking company and continues to improve its products year on year – always ahead of the game in terms of innovation and technology.”

Mr Lynch added: “We believe that Hill’s Tefra next generation quick hitches are the safest on the market today and definitely the first choice for Lynch Plant.”

Nationwide Platforms, the country’s largest powered access hire company, is offering a distinctly analogue solution to customers that prefer to keep things simple.

It has added 1,000 pusharound Pecolifts to its hire fleet. Users simply step onto the platform, turn the handle and lift themselves up to 3.5m height in 11 seconds.

With a working footprint of less than one metre squared and a weight of less than 180kg, the Pecolift offers an alternative to the step-ladder.

“Our major investment in this product represents our belief that the Pecolift can truly transform working at height for many of our customers. Not only does the product present an incredibly cost effective, safe and convenient method of working, the number of applications it can aid is also incredibly impressive” said Nationwide sales director Richard Miller.

“This revolutionary low-level access platform is a highly-efficient and safety-conscious alternative to traditional means of access such as podium steps, ladders, and step ladders, which combined are thought to contribute to around a third of reported fall-from-height incidents every year. Comparatively the Pecolift is also incredibly competitive in terms of costs and environmental credentials. It’s our aim to share these benefits with our customers across the UK.”