The small footprint of the HDT 80 meant it could work from behind the Hasty Pudding theatre
This presented a problem for contractors, as there is no street access at the rear and little space for heavy equipment at the urban site. To make matters worse, Cambridge authorities had refused to let contractors use a heavy crane at the front of the site, and swing steel girders over the building, as this would have blocked a narrow one-way street.
Steel erector Daniel Koury Construction leased the HDT 80 from Boston-based Marr Equipment, who in turn bought it from Shawmut Equipment, Potain’s US distributor. Shawmut’s self erector product manager Kevin O’Connell explained that the HDT 80 has 45m of reach with its full jib, but that “In this application, we removed the last section of jib, reducing its length to 31m, which increased the capacity to 2.7t.”
This gave the crane the capacity needed to lift the girders. The contractors were able to manoeuvre the erector through a narrow alley besides the building, and reach over the building to pick up the steel loads from trucks in the street.
