Making it Big
Sometimes, bigger is better.
Particularly when you need a crane to single-pick large bridge beams at a great radius. When that same crane is specified to move halfway through the job, a high-capacity all-terrain crane becomes the best option. Enter Central Rent-A-Crane of Indianapolis, a member of the ALL Family of Companies, and a 900-ton Liebherr LTM 1750-9.1.
The crane executed a series of night lifts as part of the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT)’s Clear Path 465 project. This phase of the project involved setting beams for the I-69 bridge over East 82nd Street in Indianapolis. The general contractors were a tri-venture of E&B Paving, Rieth-Riley Construction, and Gradex. ALL’s customer was Beaty Construction Inc. of Boggstown, Indiana.
The Liebherr LTM 1750-9.1 was configured with 170 feet of main boom, Y-guy attachment, and 449,600 pounds of counterweight to lift a total of 18 precast concrete bridge beams. Each beam weighed 95,000 pounds and was approximately 85 feet long.
The 900-ton AT was specified for the job because it had the reach and capacity to handle the extended 120-foot pick radius. Also, the crane’s mobility saved an extraordinary amount of time due to the job’s mid-mobilization requirement.
“These 18 lifts were executed over two nights,” said Patrick McKenzie, operations manager with Central Rent-A-Crane. “After the first night, we needed to move the crane from the north side of the bridge to the south side. If we had used a crawler, this move would have taken closer to two days. Using the Liebherr LTM 1750, we were able to do it in about eight hours.”
“We stripped the Liebherr of its counterweight and winch pack, loaded up the outrigger mats, and moved everything to the south end of the bridge,” said McKennzie. “Then we set the mats, extended the outriggers, reinstalled all the counterweight and winch pack, and we were ready to go.”
This gave the AT the critical advantage over a crawler.
“A crawler would not have been able to track into the new position with the previous bridge structure already demolished,” said McKenzie. Instead, it would have needed to be completely disassembled and moved via approximately 20 truckloads.
“ALL has three Liebherr LTM 1750s in our fleet, strategically located in yards across the East,” said McKenzie. “I believe that helped us get this job. A smaller-capacity crane just wouldn’t have worked as well given the radius, beam weights, and timeline.”
The successful completion of this high-profile bridge work underscores both the complex technical demands of modern bridge work and the emergence of the next generation of skilled crane operators.
Operating the AT was Central Rent-A-Crane’s own Drake Gunion, a 23-year-old heavy lift prodigy who has earned the respect of operators twice his age with his attention to detail, precision, and ability to remain cool under pressure. “Drake’s a second-generation crane operator who came to us out of IUOE Local 103 at the age of 19,” said McKenzie. “He’s gained a ton of experience in his years on the job, working his way up to higher-capacity cranes. He’s been on the Liebherr 1750 for a year and successfully completed dozens of lifts with it in that time.”
INDOT maintained traffic flow in the area throughout the work, temporarily halting traffic when a beam was actually in the air. The relative speed required to set the nine precast beams over two nights made the Liebherr LTM 1750 an ideal choice.
About ALL
The ALL Family of Companies is the largest privately held crane rental and sales operation in North America, operating under the ALL, ALT, Central, Dawes, and Jeffers names. For a rental quote: 800-232-4100 or www.allcrane.com.