Floating ballast cuts prefab costs

A Manitowoc MLC300 was a vital tool in a project to build a parking garage for Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Michigan. Precast Services, Inc., (PSI), was the main contractor on the project. It was the Twinsburg, Ohio-based company's first experience with the crane and its innovative Variable Position Counterweight (VPC).

"The logistics of the job site really drove our choice to use the MLC300 for this project," said Aaron Vnuk, director of sales and operations for PSI. "We had to lift precast panels and other loads from a truck parked on an access road from outside the footprint of the garage, so we needed a crane with great capacity at a 115ft radius. The MLC300 was the perfect crane for this situation -- the load chart is phenomenal."

The 330USt MLC300 was set up on a stone road that ran through the middle of where the garage was being constructed. It moved up and down the road from the center of the garage, and with 217ft of boom, placed loads to both sides. The crane lifted precast concrete panels, double tees, spandrels and more, with loads weighing up to 35USt. Most of the lifts rose to some 60ft to 70ft in the air.

Precast Services used a 120USt Grove GMK5120B to help erect the MLC300. "Before the MLC300, we would have had to use a larger, 400USt crane to get the reach and capacity we needed for this project. That would have easily added $100,000 in cost to the job," Vnuk explained.

"This crane also was quicker to set up and tear down. Its counterweights were easier to work with than previous cranes and we were able to use fewer of them. This saved us at least a full day's time and the cost that would have come with it."

PSI leased the crane on a suggestion from Detroit's Laramie Enterprises, Inc., with which the company has been doing business with for more than 25 years. Laramie originally purchased the crane from Manitowoc dealer Cleveland Crane and Shovel.

"Laramie always answers the call for us," Vnuk said. "It is a top-notch company with great service -- very responsive. The company can always provide us with the right crane for the right job and then offer great support once it starts working."

Due to the project's logistical restrictions, Bob Hunsaker, a sales representative with Laramie, said the MLC300 was an ideal choice and a better option than cranes of years' past.

"For the weight of the loads that had to be lifted at such a long radius, the MLC300 had much better chart than any crane that a company would have rented in the past to perform this type of work," he said. "Not only did it solve the logistical problem they were confronted with, it ended up saving them time and money over the course of the project."