Crane Hot Line is part of the Catalyst Communications Network publication family.
Everyone loves a good success story, right? Here at Crane Hot Line, we hear a lot of them! Below are a few of the great stories we have seen over the past several weeks. If you have a success story you’d like to share, please email our Head of Content, Brian Ethridge, at brian.ethridge@hlipublishing.com.
Central Bridge Company
In 2023, Central Bridge Company in Jones, Oklahoma purchased a SANY SCA900TB teleboom crawler for use on bridge and infrastructure construction projects, including setting 150’ and 222’ pedestrian bridges, placing bridge beams and pile driving.
“For a 222’ pedestrian bridge in Oklahoma City, we offloaded the unit on the side of the highway and drove it underneath I-35 with full counterweight and the boom down,” related Gary Quinonez, president. “We were then able to operate the teleboom crawler from one side of a creek. It was a tough location to access with soft ground that a crane on tires would have sunk into, but it was handled easily with the crawler crane on that job site because of its low ground bearing pressure.”
The SANY SCA900TB lets Central Bridge Company maneuver more easily in compact areas where access is tight, Quinonez noted. “And a big part of the value of our teleboom crawler is that we can bring it to a jobsite with just two loads of counterweights and load them on the crane without needing much room before walking it to the site and extending the boom,” he said. “That’s the perfect example of how a situation where a teleboom crawler is the ideal choice.”
NessCampbell Crane + Rigging
For three years, NessCampbell Crane + Rigging has been using a 240-USt Liebherr LTR 1220 teleboom crawler model. “The ability of a telescopic crawler to pick and walk, and the variable widths on mobile tracks, make it a unique and versatile addition to our fleet,” said Dan Pollard, senior V.P.
“Its first job was at the University of Oregon for a sports field renovation project,” Pollard continued. “We’ve also used it for steel erection at a high school and recently to raise and support parts of a new roof at the PDX airport in Portland, Oregon. It’s also a general support crane where we can take advantage of its two-load line system to lift and tilt and walk precast concrete.”
Zenith Tech
Craig Priewe, one of the most tenured teleboom crawler operators at Zenith Tech, has been operating the company’s two Tadano GTC 700 models for the past two years. The Walbec Group’s heavy civil construction company uses the machines on a range of bridge, pier and other types of construction projects, and for placing forms as well as for pile driving.
“The teleboom crawlers are the best crane for tight corridors where there is not enough room to come in and set up,” Priewe said. “They also make long reach operations much easier where there is a stick height restriction. For example, you can boom down to move material and then extend the boom to place it, and in the process avoid issues with other structures or power lines.”
For Priewe, flexibility is also a major benefit of the teleboom crawlers. “Set up and tear down is very quick and easy with these machines, and the ability to have many track width variations including different settings on each side lets you work effectively with many configurations,” he added.
Terra Engineering & Construction
When an environmentally sensitive and time-restricted project called for reconstruction of a river embankment and laying of a gas line from one side of a stream, Wisconsin-based Terra Engineering & Construction put their Grove GHC130 telescopic crawler crane to work.
Following flooding that led to the collapse of the embankment of a trout stream, a gas line had been exposed and required replacement. “The Department of Natural Resources presented us with a very tight timeline to do the work and to cause the least amount of disturbance to the trout stream,” said Trevor Kauffeld, project manager/estimator at Terra. “This included installing sheet pile cofferdams in phases as the gas line was replaced and re-laid through the stream bed.
“We wanted to use a crane that could handle a decent load at a long reach,” Kauffeld added. “This way, we could set up in one location and avoid the impact — and time penalty — of relocating the crane to the other side of the stream. As for the trout stream, things have pretty much returned to normal, despite having a crane on its bank for over three weeks.”
Seth Skydel is a writer with 38 years of experience covering the trucking, utility, construction, and related markets.
