A box crib or cribbing is a temporary wooden structure used to support heavy objects during construction, relocation, vehicle extrication and urban search and rescue. It is commonly used to secure overturned motor vehicles, and debris within collapsed buildings. Cribbing is often used in conjunction with other stabilization equipment, such as pneumatic or hydraulic shoring. Cribbing is also used in sub-surface mining as a roof support. Cribbing has largely been replaced by hydraulic shoring in modern mining applications.
Hardwood railway sleepers used as a box crib, North Australian Railway, 1975
Bailey Island Bridge, Harpswell, Maine. The only granite cribstone bridge in the world.
A house is supported by box cribs while new foundation is being constructed as part of a house lifting process.
A structure relocation is the process of moving a structure from one location to another. There are two main ways for a structure to be moved: disassembling and then reassembling it at the required destination, or transporting it whole. For the latter, the building is first raised and then may be pushed on temporary rails or dollies if the distance is short. Otherwise, wheels, such as flatbed trucks, are used. These moves can be complicated and require the removal of protruding parts of the building, such as the chimney, as well as obstacles along the journey, such as overhead cables and trees.
Cribbing beneath a Seattle, Washington house, 1917.
Hydraulic dolly system moving a house in Newark, Delaware
Moving a building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1799.
Marble Arch in London, England, moved from Buckingham Palace to Hyde Park in 1851.