Crisis Area Research

Follwing natural disasters, such as those seen recently in Haiti and Chile, transport is severely affected. As a result securing links to crisis areas are virtually impossible.

The Haiti earthquake has destoyed the capital's port, meaning no access to the affected areas can be made by the use of ships. This has followed on to the airport being seized-up because of the increased amount of air traffic. Rail lines have also been affected by the earthquake and made them unsafe for use.

Also, transporting cranes and other heavy lifting equipment to the affected areas is very difficult becasue of the uneven terrain. The only feasible way of reaching the crisis areas to deliver the cranes and lifting equipment are by using 4x4 vehicles or small helicopters.

It can be seen in the image below how the earthquake has affected the city. It shows that some roads have been closed and most roads have restricted access.
The image below shows that most of the affected building only have a ground floor.This means the crane we are to design does not need to exceed the height of a two storey building.

Image source: BBC News, The scale of the devastation is huge with much of the capital of Haiti flattened, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/08/americas_enl_1263474705/html/1.stm , Accessed 3rd April 2010.