The Commonwealth's Director of Public Prosecutions launched the prosecution against the national builder following a lengthy investigation by federal work safety regulator Comcare.

A worker narrowly evaded being crushed to death in the accident on John Holland's road construction project in Adelaide, in July 2013.

"This was an accident waiting to happen, with inadequate communication and isolation measures in place and shortfalls in supervision, instruction and training," Comcare chief executive Jennifer Taylor said.

"It was only through quick thinking and a degree of luck that the worker was not seriously injured or killed."

According to Comcare, construction staff on the South Road Superway project were working under lights at a yard where two large portal cranes were loading sections of a road bridge onto trucks. One of the cranes collided with the elevated platform, forcing the worker to try to leap out as the basket around him began to buckle, but his harness held him in.

He managed to lean out of the basket and avoid being crushed, and "thankfully the crane was stopped in time", Comcare said.

Monday's penalty, handed down in the Adelaide Magistrates Court, is the second against John Holland over work health and safety failures at the South Road project.

The company has previously been convicted and fined $130,000 over a 2012 incident in which a large pipe snapped and fell from the road bridge into peak-hour traffic.