Narrative:

There has been construction on an elevated rail line just outside the airport fence below the final for runway 27R. Sometimes the construction crew needs to lift a crane which blocks the final. The crew coordinated the crane going up at xa:00 local that morning. However; the crew put it up early without us noticing. A NOTAM covered the crane that day; but it indicated an incorrect time. A jet landed on [runway] 27R and reported that there was a huge crane in the way of the final and he had to maneuver around it to land. The crane blended into the background; and that's why we didn't see it on final; plus we weren't expecting one to be there. It turned out later (after we called the supervisor to question about the crane) that the crew put the crane up early; and since the supervisor forgot to tell everyone about the crane; we didn't switch approaches to the parallel runway to avoid the crane. We should have been more vigilant for a crane since the crane had been up every morning for the last few days. However; the crew had put it up earlier than coordinated; so maybe the communication between the airport authority; construction crew and tower management could have been better.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: OAK Tower Controller described a failed coordination event that resulted with a construction crane being raised near the final for Runway 27R requiring a landing aircraft to maneuver on short final.

Narrative: There has been construction on an elevated rail line just outside the airport fence below the final for Runway 27R. Sometimes the construction crew needs to lift a crane which blocks the final. The crew coordinated the crane going up at XA:00 local that morning. However; the crew put it up early without us noticing. A NOTAM covered the crane that day; but it indicated an incorrect time. A jet landed on [Runway] 27R and reported that there was a huge crane in the way of the final and he had to maneuver around it to land. The crane blended into the background; and that's why we didn't see it on final; plus we weren't expecting one to be there. It turned out later (after we called the Supervisor to question about the crane) that the crew put the crane up early; and since the Supervisor forgot to tell everyone about the crane; we didn't switch approaches to the parallel runway to avoid the crane. We should have been more vigilant for a crane since the crane had been up every morning for the last few days. However; the crew had put it up earlier than coordinated; so maybe the communication between the Airport Authority; construction crew and Tower Management could have been better.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.