The Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) has released new guidance for cranes operating near live rail environments.
The 58-page publication, Requirements for Lifting Equipment Adjacent to Railways Controlled by Network Rail, has been jointly produced by the Crane Interest Group (CIG) and the Tower Crane Interest Group (TCIG) in collaboration with Network Rail.
Until now, guidance in this area was split between two separate CPA publications – CPA1402 (mobile cranes) and CPA1801 (tower cranes). Both have now been superseded and combined into a single document, providing consistent requirements for all crane types operating near railways.
The new guidance aligns fully with Network Rail’s CIV0063 (Issue 2): Piling, Drilling, Crane, MEWP and SMPT Operations Adjacent to the Railway, ensuring that both industry and the client authority work from the same technical baseline.
The publication provides the foundational knowledge and all requirements to mitigate any potential effects on railway infrastructure when erecting, dismantling and carrying out lifting operations where a crane is working next to a railway boundary.
It introduces a defined hierarchy of control for assessing risk, with enhanced clarity on oversailing, collapse radius, working range limitation and the notification process for planned operations.
