CIRIA C703
Also called C703, Crane stability on site
CIRIA C703, Crane stability on site (second edition), is the UK industry guide to keeping a crane stable on site, covering type and choice of crane, loading cases, ground conditions and foundation details. It is one of very few UK references written about the ground under a crane rather than about the crane itself.
The UK position
CIRIA C703 was published in July 2003, edited by D Lloyd, and runs to 128 pages under ISBN 978-0-86017-703-6. Its age is worth being straightforward about: it predates BS 7121-1:2016 and CDM 2015, so the legislation and codes referenced inside it are out of date even where the engineering discussion of ground conditions and foundations is not. CIRIA still sells it, with a minimum order of five copies. What is inside it is not reproduced here — this page names the document and its scope, and stops.
Cited by number and title:
- CIRIA C703 — Crane stability on site, second edition
Where it matters on site
The useful thing about C703, for a mat specifier, is that it treats the crane and the ground as one problem: loading case, crane configuration and foundation detail are parts of the same guide. That reconciliation is exactly what goes missing when a hire desk is asked whether a mat is big enough, because the question arrives with the crane half and none of the ground half. Where the guide and current practice diverge, current practice and your temporary works designer decide — a guide of that age is a starting point for the engineering, not an authority on today’s regulations.