North America Project round up

Rock Hill, SC, USA
Liebherr said that Citadel Contractors in Rock Hill, South Carolina used its LR 1300 to perform the widest tilt-up panel in history.

The manufacturer believed that with a total width of 89ft the old world record was beaten by 6ft 2in. The panel measured 89ft wide and 30ft high with a weight of approximately 130,000lbs.

Citadel Contractors is an Apex, NC company that has specialised in tilt-up construction for more than 15 years.

Guadalajara, Mexico
A National Crane 40USt NBT40 boom truck owned by the Mexican Army has been used to repair a damaged airplane. The crane removed a 15t engine from the aircraft at a height of 10m.

The NBT40 is used by the Mexican military to help maintain its fleet of tanks and aircraft and to assist in emergency response work. Mexico-based TRACSA Group, an official Grove and National Crane dealer for the past four years, worked with the Mexican Army to select a crane that best fit it needs.

Niagara Falls, NY, USA
A Liebherr heavy lift fix mounted crane has been installed at a new drydock facility on Niagara Falls. On 31 October it completed its first job, lifting passenger tour boats out of the water for the local company Maid of the Mist.

Maid of the Mist runs a fleet of passenger boats. In order to lift these into the Niagara River in spring and out at the end of each season for maintenance and winter storage the company installed the Liebherr heavy lift crane on its newly built dockside facility.

With a lifting capacity of 200t at a radius of 15m the crane is the first Liebherr Fixed Cargo Crane (FCC) for the heavy lift segment.

Produced in the Liebherr plants Rostock (Germany) and Sunderland (UK), the crane was loaded onto a ship in the German Port of Brake at the end of August to be transported across the Atlantic Ocean. From Hamilton, Ontario (Canada) the crane was zdriven by road to the site at the Niagara Falls.

The dockside facility is located in a gorge with only limited road access so an alternative had to be found to get the crane to its final destination. So, at the end of September a ring crane lowered all parts of the FCC into the gorge for final assembly.

Columbia, SC, USA
US rental firm White Crane used its Terex 60USt Crossover 6000 boom truck crane to lift a Habitat house built by children in a juvenile correctional facility.

Frame construction of the structure had to be completed behind the Department of Juvenile Justice's (DJJ) facility's fence, as the youths were not allowed to construct it at the permanent building site.

After framing was completed inside the DJJ facility, it had to be lifted over the fence and onto a truck, so the structure could be moved to its final destination. White Crane donated the cranes and rigging manpower to perform the lift.

The new structure's size required a tandem crane lift to safely hoist the house. One of the primary challenges was that the firm had to estimate the weight of the house the wind also provided a challenged for White Crane.

To lift the approximately 33,000lb structure over the fence the company operated both cranes at a 95ft boom length at a 45ft radius. The Crossover 6000 charts a 23,100lbs capacity at these settings, which in the state of South Carolina enables up to 17,325lbs. The Habitat house lift was completed with the 60USt Crossover 6000 and 90USt mobile crane. The whole process took 4 hours.