Old Cranes

Four Liebherr duty cycle crawler cranes, type HS 895 HD, HS 885 HD and two HS 855 HD with hydrofraise, are hard at work in Seattle on Contract U220. Contract U220 is part of the University Link project, a 3.15-mile light rail extension between Downtown Seattle and the University of Washington.

Following the successful identification of an old Bay City crane last week, another reader has asked if any of our readers know who made what was a famous crane/come wrecker mounted on a Magirus chassis.

If the number of photographs we receive showing examples of crane counterfeiting is any indication, the practice of crane counterfeiting is on the rise again, or probably more likely we are seeing the true depth of the problem from earlier times?

Twelve Potain self erecting tower cranes and Grove all terrain cranes shared the majority of lifting work on a €50 million (US$70 million) redevelopment of a remote military training base in Bulgaria. The cranes had to travel more than 400 km from the Sofia headquarters of Manitowoc dealer Euromarket Group, Bulgaria’s largest supplier of construction equipment. Once at the project, the cranes frequently moved to cover a range of jobs over the base’s 144 square km area.

Schmidbauer has added its muscle to the Munich art scene by helping to erect a 52 m high sculpture. The company used its 600 tonne capacity Liebherr LR 1600/2 crawler crane to mount the 57 tonne top section of the Mae West statue onto its base at the Effnerplatz roundabout in the German capital.

A reader from the UK has sent us some photos of an old steam crane in Manchester and wonders if anyone has any information on it. He says that he came across it sitting in dock and when questioned the stefedores working on it they told him that they did not know anything of its history but that it is due to be cut up for scrap.

When the crane was first invented (that would be around the time of the Ancient Greeks), it wasn’t very easy to move around. The whole practical application of the early crane was basically rooted in the idea that a solid stationary point could provide a fulcrum for applying an upward lifting force: which is why we see the anchor holes for static cranes in the front of the remains of Ancient Grecian temples and villas.

A reader in has Northern Ireland reported a near miss with a self-erecting tower crane earlier this week. The crane’s jib buckled and fell but was retained by its hoist cables. We do not know much about what happened, but we do know that it was on a site in Downpatrick.

The superstructure of a Liebherr LTR 11200 crawler crane has been mounted on an offshore jack-up barge for wind farm work. Danish based ship owner DBB Jack-Up Services A/S worked with Liebherr on the mounting of the 1,200 tonne capacity LTR 11200 superstructure to a pedestal on its self-propelled jack-up barge the Wind.

A man was seriously injured last week in Choctaw, Oklahoma after a boom section landed on him. The accident happened on a bridge repair project when a lattice crane boom section fell on him. The section was being lifted by a 360 degree tracked excavator when it slipped, struck the man on the head and then pinned him to the ground.