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| Grove crane erects water tower in town devastated by tornado  After a massive tornado devastated the small community of Greensburg, Kan. on May 4, 2007, the town began the unprecedented process of rebuilding with sustainable materials and design, striving to be a model "green" town for the future. One of the first permanent structures to be rebuilt was the water tower. Trand Crane used its Grove GMK5275, purchased from dealer Kirby-Smith, to help lift the four sections of the steel tower into place. Terry Arnett, owner of Trand Crane and the crane's operator on the job that day, said that the erection of the water tower was a significant event in this small community. "There were nearly 400 people watching us lift the tower sections into place," he said. "The most challenging part of the job was keeping people back from the lift site."Arnett positioned the crane in the street to avoid the ground preparation needed to protect underground utilities. So the crane was set up at radius of 60 ft with 112,400 lbs of counterweight. And he used 194 ft of boom. The tower was erected in four sections. The conical base section weighed 44,000 lbs and was 28 ft tall. The column section weighed 42,000 lbs, was 83.5 ft long and 7 ft in diameter. The top tank section was 22 ft tall, 30 ft in diameter and weighed 37,000 lbs. The fourth section was a 34 ft long drywell that went down inside the tank. It weighed 8,000 lbs. While this was a relatively routine job for Trand, the significance of the water tower being one of the first structures to be rebuilt in the town made it a very high profile job. Plus, there was the pressure of the crowd and the fact the lift was being filmed by The Discovery Channel for a television series about the rebuilding of Greensburg. But despite the local interest and national media attention, Arnett said the crane performed well. "The lift went really, really well," he said. "The crane performed perfectly and we completed the job in less than a day." Trand was the lifting subcontractor working for Maguire Iron, a water tower manufacturer. The company was hired in part because it owned the largest mobile hydraulic crane in that part of Kansas at that time. Arnett said the Grove's ability to get to the job easily and set up quickly were attractive to the customer. "It didn't make economic sense for the water tower contractor to bring in a large crawler from Oklahoma City or Kansas City," he said. "We are located only 30 miles from Greensburg, so we were able to drive over, set up and do the lift in one day." The Grove GMK5275 is a 275USt all-terrain crane that boasts a 44 - 223 ft, seven-section full power MEGAFORM boom. It also has a 39 - 69 ft hydraulic offset bi-fold swingaway jib and 169,700 lbs of counterweight with hydraulic removal system. write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Construction News :: home page |