Lack of safety measures poses danger

The photographs were taken a few days ago in Sharjah. The location is opposite Buhaira Police Station and very close to Buhaira Corniche.

The construction site in this location has not been active for some time now or there has been very little activity. As one can observe from the images, the crane has been parked in a position such that the concrete load is hanging right above a busy road.

This situation has lasted for at least two months — if not longer.

The question here is — what are the safety regulations to be followed for such operations, especially in urban areas? I understand that this is a difficult time for the construction industry [worldwide] and that is probably the reason behind the lack of activities on this site.

However, I do not understand why the crane has not been rotated and parked in such a way that the concrete load hangs over the building structure, instead of above motorists and pedestrians.

This is the minimum safety measure the site management could have taken in this situation. Hopefully, this community report will trigger some action from the authorities to make our neighbourhood a safer place.

- The reader is a structural civil engineer, based in Sharjah

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