USA projects round up

San Francisco, California

Bigge has provided two tower cranes, a Potain MR615 and a Comansa LC210, for the construction of the one million square-foot Transbay Transit Center in downtown San Francisco, California. The new development will connect the region through 11 transit systems and will replace the current Transbay Terminal. The project includes the construction of homes, offices, parks and shops in the surrounding area. The tower cranes are being used to lift and set materials across the site.

Greenup, Kentucky

Barnhart mobilised its ‘Big Al’ crane to lift two 468,000lbs miter gates at a dam on Ohio River, Kentucky. Big Al is a Liebherr LR 1700 crane mounted on a 212ft by 68ft barge. Barnhart engineers in the Memphis headquarters modified the crane to be barge-mounted. The crane, based in the Port of Mobile in Alabama, travelled via tug to Paducah, Kentucky, and then further up the Ohio River. At the site, the old gates had been removed by the Corps of Engineers, while the new gates had been delivered by deck barge. Big Al used its adjustable rigging link system to accommodate the two gates. Barnhart attached specialised turning shoes and the crane lifted the gates from horizontal to a vertical position, and rough set each gate at a 135ft radius.

Anacortes, Washington

Mammoet transported and installed nine expansion modules for the Clean Product Upgrade Project of refining company Andeavor. The modules were to be installed at its naphtha hydrotreating unit and a new isomerisation unit. They were transloaded from a ship at Port of Anacortes and transported to a laydown yard and staged, ready for the final leg of the journey. Permitting allowed for one module to be moved per night as a public thoroughfare needed to be closed to traffic. The innovative addition of traffic light swivels saved time for the module moves. This approach eliminated the need to disconnect power and remove signals.

Albany, New York

Empire Crane Company, founded in 2002, rented its 2016 Kobelco 275USt CK 2750G to PM Brick, which is working on a 130ft, 8-million pound steam generator that will be transported down the Hudson River to New Jersey for a power station being built by PSEG. The Empire Crane Maintenance team regularly maintains the machine so that the crane can run smoothly, and the project can be finished on schedule without downtime.

Wawayanda, New York

A joint venture with Skanska, Burns & McDonnell, and ECCO Enterprises is using two Link-Belt TCC-1400s and one Link-Belt TCC-1100 for the construction of the CPV Valley Energy Center in Wawayanda, in the Lower Hudson Valley, 65 miles northwest of New York City. The three telescopic crawler cranes are used to unload, sort, and assemble air cooled condenser piping shells at various locations. Pipe sections weighing between 28,000 and 48,000lbs are lifted at radii up to 4ft with 84.5ft of boom. When not assisting the TCC-1400 dedicated to lifting ACC pipe, the TCC-1100 travels to the far end of the complex to offload skids and transport trailers loaded by the second TCC-1400 at an off-site laydown yard. The skids include large duct shells that weigh as much as 42,000lbs.