CPA Bulletin

www.cpa.uk.net CPA Bulletin > November 2020 23 ESTA: 1 ESTA The winners and finalists for the ESTA Awards 2020 have been announced at a special online ceremony attended by over 300 international delegates. From a record number of entries, the independent jury picked a maximum of four finalists in each of the 10 categories. The 38 selected came from 24 companies and 13 countries. In the crane categories, the award for Cranes: telescopic, lifting capacity less than 120 tonnes was won by Kynningsrud Nordic Crane fromNorway. Its winning project involved recovering a derailed and overturned freight train in an awkward spot on a slope by a river in a remote part of Norway, a challenge met using a pair of 90 tonne cranes lifting in tandem. BMS from Denmark won the award for Cranes: telescopic, lifting capacity more than 120 tonnes for its project lifting large steel girders weighing 75 tonnes in difficult conditions near a runway at Copenhagen airport. The Cranes: lattice boomcategory was won by Sarens NV fromBelgium. The work of exchanging a pair of 350 tonne legs on a jack up barge involved a 1,600 tonne capacity crawler crane with a capacity-enhancing boomsystem lifting at a radius of 37metres with the boom tip at a height of 132metres. For full details and photographs of all the winners and finalists, go to http://www.estaeurope.eu/ ESTA2020Awardswinnersfinalists The ESTA Awards are jointly organised by ESTA (The European Association of Abnormal Road Transport and Mobile Cranes) and International Cranes and Specialized Transport magazine. ESTA Director Ton Klijn has made a direct appeal to British companies and organisations not to let the Brexit debate divide - and weaken - the European crane and heavy transport industries. Speaking at the recent ESTA Awards ceremony, Klijn said: “I would like to make a direct appeal to our British friends. Not all members of ESTA are from countries that are members of the European Union and British companies and organisations have been great supporters of ESTA over the years. “We have enjoyed and appreciated your involvement and expertise. Despite the political problems, we hope very much that your commitment to our work will continue, so that we can keep learning from each other and continue to make our industry safer and more efficient, for the benefit of all of us.” Talks are underway with organisations in Germany, Denmark, Ireland and Spain to establish mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) between the national crane operator licencing authorities and ESTA’s new European Crane Operators Licence. ECOL has so far signed two MRAs - with the Netherlands and British Columbia in Canada. Such agreements involve ensuring that standards of the national licence and ECOL are fully aligned. Once they are, an ECOL licence and the national licence will be interchangeable and operators holding them will be able to work in all ECOL-recognising territories without the need for additional training or qualifications. The current round of talks are with SOLAS in Ireland; BG Verkehr in Germany; TUR, the Danish Transport Training Board; and the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Spain. Further information about ECOL is at www.ecol-esta.eu . Winners of ESTA’s European crane and transport awards announced ESTA’s Klijn makes Brexit appeal ECOL talks in Germany, Ireland and Spain