Rant: My super in Columbus said the crane mat didn't need a soil check, and we nearly lost a 40 ton rig

Shane Perry · 2026-10-07T19:50:02.756238+00:00

I was on a mid rise job site off High Street in Columbus last Tuesday when the crawler crane started sinking about 4 inches into the ground before a pick. The super had said the mat was fine and we didn't need a third party soil test to save $1,200, but I'd been burned on soft ground before so I called a halt and asked the operator to boom down. We brought in a geotech guy the next morning and he found an old buried cistern 6 feet down that the drawings never showed. If that crane had lifted the steel beam we had rigged, it would have tipped right into the excavation. Has anyone else had a super push back on soil checks to save money?

Librear

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Rant: My super in Columbus said the crane mat didn't need a soil check, and we nearly lost a 40 ton rig | Construction Management - Librear