The crane was damaged when a 150-mph burst of wind from Sandy raced up the side of the One57 building, which the crane was working on. The wind folded the crane’s lattice boom backward over its machinery house, leaving a section of boom dangling over the street.
JVT&R had to remove previously installed structural steel framing above the roof, handling sections of the damaged tower crane boom as they were removed, and assemble a rooftop derrick that would lower the damaged tower crane’s rotating platform to the ground and lift its replacement to the top of the tower.
The Maeda minicrane was placed on top of the 75-storey building which the master riggers transported using the project’s construction elevator. The cranes weight meant that was heavier than the elevator’s capacity, so some of the crane’s components had to be removed for the elevator ride, then reassembled once the crane was on the building’s roof.
The mini crane’s first job was to handle steel beams from a rooftop structure that had to be dismantled to make room for the mini crane and the derrick crane to work. It then handled 5ft. lengths of the tower crane’s damaged lattice boom as ironworkers from Piermount Iron Works, Wayne, N.J., cut them up.
The MC305 then lifted or lowered each cut-off section to a landing on the 72nd floor, where it was pulled into the building and then taken to the ground on the construction elevator. ?Other jobs the crane performed included helping to remove other parts of the tower crane, including boom stops, boom-support bridles, and sheave assemblies.
JVT&R also used the Maeda MC305 to assemble a 40t Timberland derrick with a 94ft boom on the building’s roof. The derrick was then used to lower the rest of the damaged tower crane’s machinery deck to the ground, and lift a replacement upper section to the top of the tower, which was unaffected by the hurricane.
Components for the derrick’s sills, masts, swing-bearing support, boom, machinery deck, and counterweights were carried to the roof by the construction elevator. The mini crane then handed these to the crane-erection crew. Maeda said that its crane will stay on the roof to help handle materials and to be on standby for the derrick.
