Smithwick Engineering

Most runway systems get accepted the same way: the contractor says it's done, and the owner signs off.

But "done" and "within tolerance" are not the same thing.
CMAA and AIST establish specific geometry and alignment criteria for crane rail & runway installations: rail straightness, span, elevation differential, runway girder end alignment. These aren't suggestions. They're the baseline conditions the crane and runway were designed to operate within.

The question isn't whether your contractor is competent. It's whether anyone independently verified the finished conditions before the crane went into service as an assurance that the system was installed per contract tolerances.

Independent inspection and survey at turnover does a few things:
It creates an objective record of installed conditions identifying critical geometry and its compliance with the specified tolerances.

It surfaces geometry issues while they're still an installation problem, not an operations problem. Misalignment that gets caught at turnover costs rework. The same misalignment found after a year of service costs rework plus wheel wear, rail damage, and downtime.

It gives the owner something to stand on. If performance issues emerge later, you have documented baseline data.

The assessment by an independent party removes bias and keeps the conversation between owner and contractor objective.