Heavy metal road crew

Several Liebherr crawler cranes, type LR 1100, LR 1130 and LR 1160, have been ordered by SGL Constructors, a joint venture consisting of Skanska USA, Granite, and Lane. The cranes will be used for completely revamping parts of Interstate 4 (I-4) in Central Florida, one of the state's busiest motorways.

I-4 Ultimate is a major infrastructure project in Orlando, Florida. It comprises the construction and reconstruction of 15 major interchanges and over 145 bridges, four new toll express lanes in the median as well as the rebuilding of general use lanes along a corridor of 21 miles, stretching from Kirkman Road in Orange County to State Road 434 in Seminole County.

SGL Constructors opted for cranes with maximum lifting capacities ranging between 100t and 160t (115-200USt). All are equipped with both free fall winches and auxiliary winch. This allows the contractor to use them for regular lift work as well as with leader systems.

All cranes have an auxiliary power unit to power air conditioning. These units are integrated into the machinery house and allow the operator to turn off the engine while still running the air conditioning, a major benefit in the hot climate of Florida. Moreover, turning off the engine in periods when the crane is on idle saves fuel and is not only economically efficient but also environmentally friendly.

However, these auxiliary power units are not the only additional devices installed to meet the requirements posed by the weather in Florida. All cranes are also equipped with new lightning rods on the main boom head. They prevent damage to the cranes' electronics caused by possible lightning strikes.

The ordered crawler cranes are part of Liebherr's popular LR-series.

These cranes convince with their excellent performance, high mobility and easy handling, says Liebherr.

Thanks to their flexible boom systems they can be used for a large variety of applications. The proven control system with integrated load moment limitation is a further unique selling proposition of the cranes.

In order to prepare both crane operators and mechanics for their future tasks, Liebherr offers state-of-the-art simulator training directly on the jobsite, thanks to the containerised solution of the brand new simulator for crawler cranes.

The simulators offer realistic training in a virtual environment. Housed in a container, the simulator can easily be transported from one jobsite to another and train crane operators in different scenarios.

Construction work on the interstate is scheduled to be completed within the next six and a half years. The costs of the entire I-4 Ultimate project are estimated to be more than $2.3bn.