The 12-year Hudson Yards project will incorporate 16 skyscrapers and office, residential and retail space.

The foundations for the development are a combination framework and platform being built directly over the West Side Yard, a train hub and storage site for the Long Island Railroad and 34th Street subway station. The Manitowoc 18000 is being used to place columns, girders and other steel components in the spaces between the existing railyard tracks, to create a framework on which a platform will be built.

The project involves moving loads up to 220USt, including installing caisson cores weighing up to 80USt and columns weighing up to 140USt, and assembling a tower crane.

The crane, stationed on a temporary reinforced concrete foundation, was leased to main contractor Tutor Perini from Pennsylvania-based Lomma Crane & Rigging. The lack of a wagon has meant that the company has not required crane mats and steel reinforcements on the platform.

The 18000 is rigged with a 200ft boom, 100ft fixed mast, and is set up with a full 264USt of upper counterweight and 160USt of carbody counterweight.