A different kind of Saturday...............

[Don Ferrette]

Spent all day yesterday until dusk (leaving shortly to go back in to handle the start up hopefully around 1pm) overseeing replacing the cooling towers on my building in downtown Richmond. Had done a tower project before on a much smaller building, this one worked out to a 20 story lift to clear the walls that mask the equipment. Super cool to watch how this is done and these guys have their shiznit together.....

 

[Mark Stein]

its amazing when you see that sort of stuff on tv. in person has to be pretty sweet

 

[Andy Greene]

Damn thats a heck of a lift- I have done many smaller units up to 6 floors- but that Chiller is big as hell, any taller building and that would have been a heli set

 

[Jerry Muro]

What is real cool is a helicopter lift I have been on 2 of them Carson Helicopter did them at Roche pharmaceutical here is NJ. Being in the construction field it is all pretty cool nowadays as the equipment is all hi tech. Nice pictures Don. Jerry

 

[Ray Sametz]

Did about a half dozen of those when I was in construction. Working for the GC, one of the hardest parts was getting all the premits to close the street, etc etc. Made some big money with the OT on the weekends. Back them it was all double time.

 

[Jerry Muro]

Yes indeed Ray still an issue getting permits and closures need an expediter to do the leg work. OTx Dlb time = toy boats and a happy wife

 

[Don Ferrette]

Damn thats a heck of a lift- I have done many smaller units up to 6 floors- but that Chiller is big as hell, any taller building and that would have been a heli set

With the height involved and the size/weight of the two cooling tower cells (25,000 lbs. each cell) we looked at both the crane and heli options. We actually went with the crane because of the time of year, winds are more unpredictable and the crane can sit and wait it out more so than a heli. We actually lost well over 3 hours yesterday due to the winds being over the limit for the height of the lifts. There is a weather station at the top of the crane with a gauge set in the cab box and the operator told us later on that he saw wind gusts a few times that were almost three times past the red zone limit.

As for the permit part that is always interesting especially when it involves shutting down Main Street in downtown Richmond for the entire weekend.

 

[LarryConrad]

Big cranes! Don, What was the height of the lift? I worked with and around cranes on a daily basis for the majority of my working career. The largest, and heaviest lifts I witnessed were when I was employed at Bath Iron Works in Maine. The most dangerous while building and cutting down water towers. the largest number of picks in a work day while setting precast concrete plank and wall panels.

 

[Andy Greene]

Larry I think he said 20 stories , about the end of that cranes lift I would assume, hence the ignored warning buzzers

Andy

 

[Don Ferrette]

Larry I think he said 20 stories , about the end of that cranes lift I would assume, hence the ignored warning buzzers

Andy

I was a tick off, it worked out to about 18 stories total reach needed to get the job done. Needless to say there wasn't much "extra cable" on the spool.

And believe me there were no ignoring the "buzzers", we lost over 3 hours due to winds being over the limits.

 

[Kevin Krogness]

If I remember correctly from my crane certification training 30-35 is a no go,,, but ask the fellas what the average wind speed is while they are assembling the wind generators!!!! They will probably not tell you the speed but say as long as it's steady they will pick the load!!!

 

[dwilfong]

When I worked as a mill right up north in Philly. I had to rebuild a crane mounted on top of a tower 100' above the docks at the BP supper tanker port. The telescope cyl was leaking oil in to the water. that was the start of this project.

Now imagine oil leaking at tanker dock. the USCG was all over it. boom every where.

Tried to remove the cyl from the back first. well it did not come out a bracket was in the way.

The whole boom needed to be taken apart. now all this was being done on a 20'x20' platform 100' in the air with the help of a large crane on a barge.

Best case remove the whole boom and bring it to the shop.

Well the boom pivot pin would not move. Frozen!!!!!!! wonder why?

Next step cut the pin with a torch! now this is on the dock at the oil refinery.

YA lots of permits later and a USCG watch dog on hand we start.

Now this thing is slung from a crane on a barge. OK lets cut the pin!!!!!

This is a 75'-3 stage boom I am cutting loose now!

Is it balanced and where will it go when cut lose?

Owners son on a rope to steady it now. there she goes and the owners son right to the railing as the rope rips its way around his hand like a hot snake. Alright he let go and stopped at the rail.

YA all good as the USCG guy just puts his face in his hands.

Well all is good that ends good.

NEXT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SayMikey]

Tom David on here is a crane man.Watched him lift cooling units on a roof while a guy on the radio guided him. Amazing some of the stuff those guys do

 

[Ray Sametz]

Low bid on a job in the 90's we had a old time crawler. We built cribing platform, problem was space was too tight to erect the stick. Had to assemble on the avenue with the stick on and crawl to the platform. Some scary stuff.

 

[Andy Greene]

On the smaller side of Cranes , when I was framing custom homes - Crane day was always a MFKR , The boss would scream at us the entire time to work faster and for sure less safe the entire time till the trusses where set, then like flipping a switch he was fine again- prick

Funny how they act when the crane bill is coming out of their pocket.

A few years later he got his OWN crane- let the scary shzt begin, Im just glad Im here to talk about it

Im the Safety Committee guy in our shop now with Dish , they would FREAK the F out if they saw the crap we pulled back in the day

Andy

 

[Tom Foley]

And they tell us to turn lights off to save energy !!!!! LOL !

 

[Ray Sametz]

Low bid on a job in the 90's we had a old time crawler. We built cribing platform, problem was space was too tight to erect the stick. Had to assemble on the avenue with the stick on and crawl to the platform. Some scary stuff.

On the smaller side of Cranes , when I was framing custom homes - Crane day was always a MFKR , The boss would scream at us the entire time to work faster and for sure less safe the entire time till the trusses where set, then like flipping a switch he was fine again- prick

Funny how they act when the crane bill is coming out of their pocket.

A few years later he got his OWN crane- let the scary shzt begin, Im just glad Im here to talk about it

Im the Safety Committee guy in our shop now with Dish , they would FREAK the F out if they saw the crap we pulled back in the day

Andy

And they tell us to turn lights off to save energy !!!!! LOL !

Did you just burn one Foley.

 

[John Finch]

Hey Don,

I guess the ice storage tanks are next. Glad to see Leo is spending the money.

John

 

[Don Ferrette]

Hey Don,

I guess the ice storage tanks are next. Glad to see Leo is spending the money.

John

Yup, I'm already researching chillers, the RFP will go out later next month for this coming winter replacement and part of that will be saying bye bye to those damn 24 ice tanks in the penthouse.

 

[Buckshot]

We will have to use a crane like the 350t hydro you used just to assemble the 1200t Crawler I'm gonna use in NYC.

Gonna set 280,000lbs box trusses at 200' radius and 200' up.