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University of Victoria to grant honour to CRAC co-founder
ne of the founders of the Crane Rental Association of Canada will receive an honorary degree from the University of Victoria in mid June.
Murray Farmer, who previously owned Commercial Crane Rental Ltd., will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree at UVic’s convocation ceremony on June 15.
“It’s very important to me because of my involvement through the years with UVic,” Farmer told Crane & Hoist Canada
He attended UVic when it first opened in 1963, graduating in 1968 with a degree in economics and political science. More recently, he served on UVic’s board of governors, which he eventually chaired. After that, he spent two three-year terms as the university’s chancellor from 2009 to 2014.
Farmer owned Commercial Crane until the late 1990s when he sold the company to Sterling Crane. It was about that time that he helped to organize CRAC, although he credited then-Sterling president Dave Snyder with coming up with the idea.
“But he got me to do a lot of the formation work and a lot of the contacting of people across Canada,” Farmer said.
That led to the association holding its inaugural meeting in Victoria in 1998.
“It turned out to be a pretty good deal,” said Farmer, whose many other credits include having served as chairman of the Canadian Construction Association.
His father, George, founded Farmer Construction, a well-known Victoria firm. The family sold the construction company about 18 years ago. However, the Farmer family still has a management company, a major part of which is the Accent Inns hotel chain.
While at age 72, Murray Farmer is now retired, he and his wife Lynda have remained involved in many causes around Victoria such as fundraising to establish the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre in nearby Sidney. In a similar vein, he was also an early proponent of UVic’s VENUS and NEPTUNE undersea observatories and Ocean Networks Canada, which is based at UVic.
And despite being of English and Irish heritage, Farmer is the honorary colonel of the Victoria-based Canadian Scottish Regiment.
“So I get to wear a kilt.”
Retired Ontario operator wins giant lottery payoff
A retired crane operator in Ontario won a $30 million lottery jackpot this May.
William “Bud” Perry of Pickering won the jackpot in the May 10 Lotto 6/49 draw, said a news release from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.
As a crane operator, the 77-year-old Perry “has helped build everything from skyscrapers to highways,” the release said.
“I’ve actually retired a couple of times,” Perry said in the release. “I got bored after my first retirement at age 62 so took a job as a crane operator at a diamond mine in the Northwest Territories. That lasted six years until I finally called it quits for good. This lottery win will definitely keep me busy.”
An inventor, Perry expects his winnings to help him see his projects to fruition. He would also love to play golf at “the best courses in every single province and territory,” adding that winning the lottery was easier than making a hole in one.
More importantly, Perry, a widower, also plans to share his winnings with his family.
“Family means everything to me,” he said. “My wife was my best friend and my children and grandchildren are my life. I am not the mushy type but my family knows that they are my number one priority.”
Quebec firm marks half century of loyal membership to SC&RA
Quebec Citybased crane rental firm Guay Inc. was recognized this spring for 50 years of loyal membership in the Specialized Carriers & Rigging Association.
Several other Canadian firms were among the 57 companies the SC&RA recognized with Longevity Awards at the association’s annual conference held April 18-22 in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Premay Equipment Ltd. of Edmonton was honoured for 40 years of membership.
Cambridge Rigging Central Limited of Ayr, Ont., and the Matcom Group of Vaughan, Ont., received awards for 30 years with the association.
Twenty-five years award winners included Apex Specialized Rigging & Moving of Delta, B.C.; Gwil Industries Inc. of Burnaby, B.C.; and Ready Machinery & Equipment Inc. of Milton, Ont.
In total, the SC&RA granted 57 Longevity Awards for continuous membership ranging from 25 to 65 years.
The longest-serving company was Bigge Crane and Rigging Co. of San Leandro, Calif., with 65 years. Gelock Transfer Line Inc., of Grand Rapids, Mich., was recognized for 55 years with the SC&RA.
Joining Guay in the 50-year club was Link-Belt Construction Equipment Co. of Lexington, Ky.
The SC&RA has more than 1,300 members in 46 countries.
Murray and Lynda Farmer are active with many causes in the Victoria area.
Wendy Montgomery, a senior vice-president with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, presents a $30 million cheque to lottery winner William “Bud” Perry, accompanied by his son, Sean Perry, in Toronto.
This RT100 rough-terrain crane, owned by Montreal-based Guay Inc., was one of the three new crane models that Link-Belt Construction Equipment Co. unveiled at its 2015 CraneFest in Lexington, Ky. Guay and Link-Belt each received 50-year Longevity Awards this spring from the Specialized Carriers & Rigging Association.
THE PERFECT FIT...
• 130ton (118mt) Lattice Crawler Crane
• 281ft (85.6m) max tip height (Tube)
• 44,565 lb (20,214 kg) max line pull
• 536 ft/min (163m/min) max line speed
• 89,000 lb upper Ctwt / 26,500 lb lower Ctwt
• Cummins QSB 6.7 Tier 4 Final
Boom dolly concerns raised with Alberta and Saskatchewan
Committee argues that hazards to the public pose greater risk than stress on the pavement from heavy cranes
KEITH NORBURY
The Crane Rental Association of Canada has written to the governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan requesting relaxation of provincial regulations that necessitate the use of boom dollies when transporting all-terrain cranes.
In a March 22 letter to Brian Mason, Alberta’s minister of infrastructure and transportation, Sheena Baker, then the chairperson of CRAC, said the crane industry is hindered by provincial regulations that restrict axle weights on allterrain cranes.
“Although manufacturer specifications for AT crane are designed with the boom facing forward, provincial regulations require our industry to transport AT cranes using a boom dolly,” Baker wrote.
She added that federal guidelines “allow for the boom over the front configuration, however, restrictive regulations at the provincial level force us to transport this equipment with a dolly.”
CRAC sent a similar letter to the Saskatchewan government.
More meetings scheduled
The association is concerned that use of the dollies pose safety hazards.
Tim Sittler, a senior advisor with Mammoet Canada, raised the issue at the 2015 CRAC conference in Montreal. That led the association to establish a boom dolly research committee. The committee was scheduled to meet at the 2017 CRAC conference in St. Andrews, N.B., as this edition was going to press.
vertikal.net reported at the time.
Letter outlines risks
In her letter to Alberta, Baker cited “unnecessary risks” that boom dollies pose to the public, including the following:
• dramatically altered steering dynamics that “could contribute to unstable events or driving conditions;”
• “unpredictable swing radius” that the public not perceive;
• increased blind spots and passing distances; and
• roadside hazards when parking the dollies, such as from overhead power lines or unstable ground.
Baker also noted “significant incremental costs” associated with the dollies, such as extra employee hours, as well as “unnecessary environmental impacts,” such as land disturbances at remote sites that have “few storage options.”
The letter added that the issues would be resolved by increasing the allowable weights to 12,000 kilograms per axle on AT cranes. Membership on the CRAC boom dolly committee includes representatives of major crane manufacturers and Canadian crane rental houses as well as Ohio-based Nelson Manufacturing Company, which manufacturers boom dollies.
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Dean Schmied, who is vice-chairman of the committee, told Crane & Hoist Canada that a meeting is scheduled with the Saskatchewan government on June 20 while a second meeting with Alberta is set for June 28. He had nothing new to report beyond what was in Baker’s letter to Mason.
“These cranes have already been approved nationally to go boom over the front when we brought them to Canada because they’re a new style of crane,” Schmied said. “But then when we brought them to Canada and they’re approved boom over the front, all the provinces decided they would make all the rules different.”
Use of the dollies with cranes have been implicated in highway fatalities, including one in this February near Baton Rouge, La.,
Dolly maker stresses safety
“We support anything that makes the highway safer for everybody because we all drive down the road too,” said Nelson vicepresident Tony Niese.
Niese said he understands CRAC’s concerns about boom dollies.
“Nobody ever wants to use a dolly if they don’t have to and we certainly understand that,” Niese said. “That makes perfectly good sense from a user standpoint. If they don’t need one, (or) they don’t want one, it’s just more expense.”
However, he added that allowing cranes to increase their axle weights would also encourage users of other heavy haul equip-
Tony Niese of Nelson Manufacturing Company offers advice on safely using boom dollies at the 2016 annual conference of the Crane Rental Association held in Calgary.
File photo by Keith Norbury
Dean Schmied
ment to demand similar treatment.
Another consideration, Niese said, is “if they get rid of the dolly they may have and probably will have more trucks and equipment on the road to mobilize that crane because now instead of hauling some counterweight on that dolly, they need a separate truck to transport it.” And that will drive up costs, he said.
He also stressed that the dollies are safe “when they’re utilized properly, designed properly built properly, and operated properly.” For example, he recommends having a minimum of 60 per cent of the gross weight on the crane and less than 40 per cent on the dolly. “If you do that, we feel that the units are extremely safe,” Niese added.
Alberta responds
Concerns about pavement stress are the reason for the axle-weight restrictions and therefore the requirement for boom dollies, the CRAC letter noted. However, Baker said that recent research CRAC conducted with two Alberta universities shows that the impact on pavement “was markedly less
“We support anything that makes the highway safer for everybody because we all drive down the road too.”
—
Tony Niese, vice-president, Nelson Manufacturing Company
“Although manufacturer specifications for AT crane are designed with the boom facing forward, provincial regulations require our industry to transport AT cranes using a boom dolly.”
— Sheena Baker, 2016 chairperson, Crane Rental Association of Canada
Friesen added that the ministry has checked with several sources, including Occupational Health and Safety, “and have not yet found any evidence to support the claims of increased risk to safety from using the dollies.”
Friesen also said that mobile cranes at the current weight limits, even with dollies, “cause more pavement damage than other legal loads in all seasons.” The costs to repair that damage “are borne by all Alberta taxpayers,” he said.
Union also weighs in
Bruce Moffatt, business agent for local 955 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, said he respects the government for being prudent with the taxpayers’ money.
than previously thought” but that the risks of boom dollies “are far more significant than originally believed.”
In response to a written question from Crane & Hoist Canada about pavement stress for increased axle weights, Jamie Friesen, a public affairs office with Alberta Transportation said, “We have seen evidence that is contradictory with that conclusion, based on the same data. We are reviewing the information.”
Canadian firms contend for hauler of year awards
Three Canadian companies were among the contenders for Hauling Job of the Year honours awarded at the recent annual convention of the Specialized Carriers & Rigging Association.
Mammoet Canada and Nickel Bros. had entries in the moving category, while Precision Specialized Division Inc. had an entry in the 160,000 to 500,000 pounds trucking category, according to news release from the association.
Mammoet’s entry was for taking the lead “on a rapid 19-day project redeveloping a three-level highway, the Turcot Interchange, involving the removal of a
“But I think the information that they’re relying on is perhaps outdated and that there is more current information around these machines and that was certainly part of the presentation that CRAC made to the minister,” said Moffatt, whose union sent a letter to the ministry in support of CRAC’s position.
Local 955, which covers Alberta, has about 2,250 crane operators in its membership of 13,000. The union’s concern is that use of boom dollies “absolutely changes the dynamics” of transporting cranes on highways.
“You kind of need to be a very experienced long-haul and off-road kind of experienced driver to be able to operate one of them with the dolly,” Moffatt said.
redundant rail tunnel in a very high traffic area,” the release said.
The Nickel Bros. entry was for successful completion of “a part land, part marine project that involved receiving the components of a new coal stacker reclaimer consisting of seven main pieces plus 91 components.”
Precision Specialized, meanwhile, “performed an international haul of a 169,800-pound boiler 2,360 miles from Nebraska to Ontario on a 13-axle transporter rigged with an eight-foot deck extension.”
The winners of the awards were Fagioli (moving and over 500,000 pounds), Barnhart International (160,000 to 500,000 pounds), and Emmert International (under 160,000 pounds).
The SC&RA presented the awards at the association’s annual convention this April in Scottsdale, Ariz.
New cranes are
Megamax cranes coming to B.C. port
Deltaport near Vancouver is adding two new Megamax ship-to-shore cranes to the facility, said a recent news release posted on the website of Global Container Terminals of Canada, which operates Deltaport.
The cranes were expected to arrive June 7, as this edition was going to press.
The addition of the cranes is part of a reconfiguration of Deltaport’s intermodal rail yard, the release said.
The cranes, manufactured by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., can reach across the width of more than 23 standard shipping containers. Standing more over 137 metres high and with a lifting capacity of 65 tonnes each, the cranes “will be among the largest in the Americas,” said an earlier news release from Deltaport.
“This order complements our existing fleet of 10 ZPMC post-Panamax cranes at
GCT Deltaport, and coupled with our rail expansion, ensures our readiness to service the largest ships coming to Vancouver in 2017,” GCT Canada president Eric Waltz said in that December 2015 news release.
Cost of the Deltaport rail-yard reconfiguration was pegged at $280 million in 2015.
The new cranes look similar to Deltaport’s existing fleet of cranes, but they also “boast many exciting features that make them an important part of our commitment to a more sustainable future,” the most recent announcement said.
“The electric-powered cranes are the most advanced in North America and are equipped with regenerative drives and high-efficiency LED lighting,” the release said. “They are also designed to reduce operational noise levels considerably compared to other STS cranes.”
arriving in June at B.C.’s Deltaport.
Truth, facts, and openness
Editor’s note: e following commentary from Leigh W. Sparrow, publisher of e Vertikal Press, is reprinted with permission.
We appear to be sliding into an era where truth and facts are seen as disruptive irritations to the agendas, not only of outspoken “populist” politicians, but also increasingly of large companies and industry associations.
The former was seen most clearly last year with the Brexit campaign leading up to the U.K. referendum during which there was an appalling litany of exaggerated doomsday scenarios, outright lies and distorted facts on both sides of the argument. This was followed by the presidential campaign in the U.S.A. where at one point it was thought 70 per cent of the “facts” spouted by the winning candidate were apparently wrong, and the other candidate looked honest by being untruthful only 30 per cent of the time!
Since then the term “alternative facts” has emerged and we have witnessed strong condemnation of the press for not reporting the party line — no matter how inaccurate or wrong. There has always been “spin,” exaggeration and distortion in politics, but we are now entering a period where the use of blatant untruths — Fake News if you will — is being defended or fluffed off with little shame when exposed.
Crane & Hoist Canada welcomes submissions of letters, guest columns, short notices, product announcements, press releases, and ideas for articles. Send them to editor@craneandhoistcanada.com.
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Press releases: These should have something to do with cranes and/or hoists in Canada. We might publish only part of a press release or use it as starting point for an article by one of our writers.
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All submissions are subject to editing and publication cannot be guaranteed. The deadline for our next issue of Crane & Hoist Canada is July 28, 2017. Sooner is always better than later.
Of greater concern is the way that information suppression, untruths and nastiness is seeping into the construction and associated industries. You might argue it was always like this, but social media and the Internet have given rumours and lies far greater exposure, perhaps creating a reaction towards even greater suppression and dishonesty?
In this atmosphere how do we differentiate between fact and fiction? It is really down to us all to support good quality impartial news services, while ignoring and refusing to give credence to sources that peddle untruths.
The worst aspect of this is the suppression of information surrounding accidents or near misses in the workplace. While not new, it hampers progress towards greater safety at work. The advent of mobile phones with good cameras makes hiding such incidents far harder. And yet whenever we report a near miss or accident that is not in the mainstream media, the first thing the site managers do is conduct a witch hunt to find who “leaked” the information, rather
than focus on what lessons can be learnt from the mistake and sharing it with others to help save lives. Some of those guilty happily grandstand at safety award ceremonies, while rigidly suppressing any information that might help improve safety. The safety authorities know that companies suppress and ignore near misses, but the principal reasons for this is the way some of them look to blame and prosecute rather than learn.
Another example is the suppression and distortion of the truth in cases where a supplier has made an error which causes an accident, product failure or other serious incident, in order to escape financial penalties. In some cases both sides know exactly what happened in a particular incident, but the “guilty” party lies openly and directly in order to escape responsibility. Some of this is down to the legal system that looks to blame and punish rather than prevent future occurrences.
We need industry leaders and associations to stand up, unite and fight for a far more open atmosphere. We already have a fine example of how this can be done in the aviation industry. It is no accident that operating a big aircraft is statistically safer than operating a crane and possibly even a platform.
While none of this is new, I fear that the changing political atmosphere with senior leaders treating truth and free speech with a level of disdain that most of us have never seen before, emboldens those who already have such tendencies. It certainly does nothing to encourage enlightenment and openness, making the reporting of accidents or manufacturing errors more remote than ever.
Perhaps a solution might be for companies to sign up to a truth and openness charter that treats justified whistle blowing with respect — in an open atmosphere there is no role for the whistle blowers — and the reporting of near misses rewarded rather than being punished. While industry associations could lead this, it needs the safety authorities to set the ball rolling, rewarding companies that openly share information on near misses and accidents. This requires the risk of prosecution to be a secondary consideration, with the prevention of future incidents being paramount.
Leigh W. Sparrow is based in Brackley, U.K.
About our cartoonist
Nelson Dewey has been a prolific cartoonist for over 50 years. If his work looks familiar, maybe you read a lot of car comic books when you were younger.
In the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, Dewey was a frequent contributor to those comics, particularly CARtoons. He also drew for Hot Rod Cartoons, CYCLEtoons, SURFtoons and SKItoons. In all, he produced nearly 2,000 pages in those publications.
He has also published cartoons in Cracked Magazine, Oui, Reader’s Digest and Motor Trend, as well as community newspapers and dozens of books. And he shared an Emmy Award in 1988 for his work on storyboards for the Arthur cartoon series on television.
To take a trip down memory lane and see samples of Dewey’s car cartoons, go to his website, www.nelsondewey.com.
Crane conference attendees get educated in New
STORY AND
ABrunswick
BY MATT JONES
bout 185 delegates — including equipment manufacturers, suppliers, and trainers — attended the annual conference of the Crane Rental Association of Canada this June.
Held June 7-10 at the Algonquin Resort in Saint Andrews By-the-Sea, it marked the first time that CRAC has convened the conference in New Brunswick. The occasion also demonstrated a commitment to enhancing education.
Most notably, a presentation by consultant Bruce Mayhew dealt with the different approaches required in hiring and motivating millennials. Another presentation — by Dan Demers, occupational health operations manager with CannAmm Occupational Testing Services — focused on the pending legalization of marijuana and the need for employers to develop specific policies to deal with that issue. (Watch a future issue of Crane & Hoist Canada for more on these topics).
Giving members what they want
Claire Bélanger-Parker, CRAC’s executive administrator, said the shift in content represented a concerted effort by the organizers to present information the members wanted.
“We always listen to the membership after the conference, in the emails and feedback that we get,” BélangerParker said. “Traditionally, the association has always had an industry-focused presentation on the Saturday morning — technical information, upcoming new supply and services available to the members, and it is important to continue to do that. But the Friday this year, we really focused on developing educational content that is affecting us, not just as crane operators but in every other aspect of working in this industry. The topics we explored this year are good for any industry.”
Other presenters included Jose Perez of Broderson Manufacturing, who spoke on the company’s crane offerings; Patrick Lacroix, the New Brunswick manager of stakeholder relations for TransCanada Corp., who discussed the proposed Energy East oil pipeline project; and Andrew Dixon, senior vice-president of trade and business development for Port Saint John.
Networking still front and centre
Incoming conference chairman Ted Redmond, president and CEO of Alberta-based NCSG Crane & Heavy Haul Corporation, said seeing the content for this year’s conference come together is informing his preparations for next year’s conference at the Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg. Redmond also noted that there has been an effort to broaden the appeal of the annual general meeting, which is held at the conference.
“It is and will always be an industry networking event where you get to know everybody in the industry,” Redmond said. “We have our industry presentations, but we’re having more industry committees on issues of relevance to our industry, like our boom dolly committee and how we can improve boom dolly/crane interaction and make our cranes run smoother. And also we’ve launched a safety award program so our CRAC members that have excellent
Annual event touches down in the Atlantic province for the first time
safety can get recognized for their safety efforts. We’re coming up with new ways to bring value to our members.”
Fraser Cocks, executive director of the B.C. Association for Crane Safety, has been a fixture at the CRAC conference, having missed it only once since he joined the organization. Cocks said the event continues to be a great networking opportunity. In his case, he can interact with his counterparts in the fight for the harmonization of trades training standards. Over his years attending, however, he has seen the makeup of the attendees change, though it is a reflection of change in the industry.
It’s a changing industry
“Smaller guys are getting bought out by larger companies,” Cocks said. “The founding directors of this organization could bring everyone together big or small, but it’s not as easy to get the size they used to get in the past. It can be a financial burden to get out here.”
Dean Barley, vice-president and general manager of Terex Cranes Americas, attended the conference for a second time. For Barley, the biggest benefit is simply the networking opportunity and getting a chance to learn more about his customers’ needs.
“It was good to interact with everybody,” Barley said. “CRAC is definitely growing. It seems like a lot more interest out there and it’s definitely adding value in a lot of areas that you probably can’t put a number on.”
Pinky Gonzales, director of marketing for Industrial Training International, was a first-time attendee of the conference. He said that for a training company, it was great to see the announcement of the safety awards.
“We can talk about productivity and the future of the work force, and a skilled trade shortage, and all these things, but at the end of the day, if you can’t operate without killing people and breaking stuff, you’re going to go out of business,” Gonzales said. “Fewer people being hurt and working more efficiently are really good metrics to look at. Anything that acknowledges and puts a focus on safety is good for everybody.”
Blair Norberg, director of sales at B.C.-based Falcon Equipment Ltd., found the marijuana presentation to be the most alarming.
“Employers really have to take a stance from a safety perspective,” said Norberg, who was attending the conference for the first time.
Training receives reality checks
The president of ITI, Zack Parnell, gave a presentation Saturday morning on the ways that virtual reality, augmented reality and other emerging technology are revolutionizing the industry. Another presentation, by Drew Carruthers, a product line manager with Montreal-based CM Labs Simulations, dealt with ways simulations can enhance crane industry training. Both companies had their technologies set up so that attendees could try them out.
“With the new generations of operators coming in, we have to change the training programs,” said former CRAC chairman and current board member, Sheldon Baker of Canadian Crane Rentals Ltd., after trying ITI’s virtual reality simulator, which uses software from Edmonton-based Serious Labs Inc. “The costs for some of these big 3D set ups, the only ones who’ll be able to use those tools are the larger organizations that have the funding. But something like this, it’s obtainable.”
His daughter, Sheena Baker, works alongside him in the family business and chaired this year’s CRAC conference.
“It’s a family run business, there’s a third generation being groomed to take over, and she’s got the fourth generation already in the oven,” Sheldon Baker said. “Technically, there were four generations there. My father was sitting beside me and she’s carrying one.”
The conference also featured a golf event, a variety of local tours, and a “kitchen party” with live local music. The AGM included a presentation to the Dragonfly Center for Autism, for which CRAC raised $3,100 over the course of the conference.
PHOTOS
Former CRAC chairman Sheldon Baker tries the Industrial Training International virtual reality simulator, which is powered by software from Edmontonbased Serious Labs Inc.
Incoming CRAC chairman Ted Redmond (left) shares a laugh with board members Mike Turnbull of J.D. Irving Ltd., and former chairman JeanLouis Lapointe of Guay Inc.
Edmonton bridge build
Work began in 2013
The decision was spurred in part by interest in hosting the 2017 World’s Fair. Federal funding shortfalls nixed Expo 2017. However, the notion of Edmonton on the global stage sparked the idea for the new bridge, which crosses the North Saskatchewan River.
Crews began work on the $155-million project in 2013. It calls for three northbound traffic lanes, a shared-use path for cyclists and pedestrians, and access to substantial riverside park space.
Garth Woynarowich, manager of special projects with Midwest Constructors, an Edmonton builder that’s part of a larger local construction entity known as Supreme Group, says ALE Roll-Lift Canada supplied the two crawlers — a CC 2400 400-ton and a CC 2500 500-ton — and these have proven key through the project’s three phases.
First up was installing two 56-metre steel arches, spanning 206 metres and supported by large, buried concrete thrust blocks on each side of the river. These were brought on-site in sections by barge, with four strand jacks used to jack-and-roll the 950-tonne arches into place. The two crawlers, one on each side of the river, helped erect the smaller sections.
The cranes were set up with a short boom, about 86 metres, for this initial phase. However, once the arches were in place, Woynarowich and Midwest joined
continued from cover
the project team and reconfigured the cranes with their maximum 120-metre boom capacity to do the main deck.
Final phase coming soon
The third and final phase for the crawlers, slated for spring into early summer, will see their booms brought back in to about 72 metres so they can hoist components for the shared-use path alongside the roadway’s eastern edge.
Any project of this scale has challenges. Woynarowich says an Enerpac system with four hydraulic rams allowed crews to place the heavy steel components where they were needed. “They weren’t hanging perfectly level so the rams allowed them to manipulate the load into the proper alignment,” Woynarowich says.
With the first phase completed, Woynarowich and Midwest Constructors came on-scene and reconfigured the same cranes to extend their booms to full 120-metre capacity to build the main deck. “The main deck is structural steel and we required the length of those booms and the capacity to reach over-top the arches,” Woynarowich explains.
Installing the concrete deck wasn’t easy because it’s supported by steel stringers and beams. Each beam had to be individually placed.
The floor beams and cables were hanging at 10-metre intervals, presenting a challenge to crews, Woynarowich says. “It was very hard to work in between, so we used a
Snow doesn’t stop work on Edmonton’s new Walterdale Bridge.
Photo courtesy of Joe Vigneron, Central Steel Erectors
Liebherr all-terrain crane does its part on Walterdale Bridge project.
Photo courtesy of Garth Woynarowich, Midwest Constructors
Crane lifts a smaller one during replacement project of Edmonton’s Walterdale Bridge.
Photo courtesy of Joe Vigneron, Central Steel Erectors
self-centring spreader bar — a counterbalance beam — to work underneath the arches, to stay away on the outside of the arches and work from the sides of the bridge.”
Operators worked in synch
The two crane operators had to manoeuvre their respective auxiliary winches and load lines at the same time, in sync and using the spreader bar, in order to reach underneath the arches.
shoring towers and smaller components and complete some of the finer details.
Liebherr ATs also assist
Crews have also used Liebherr LTM 1100, LTM 1200 and LTM 1350 all-terrain hydraulic telescopic boom cranes, with 100 to 350-ton capacities, to assist the crawlers by holding onto different components and support baskets carrying crews members.
Of course, no Canadian crane story is complete without talking about the weather. “The wind was definitely a challenge,” Woynarowich says. “On our deck phase alone we lost approximately 14 days to high winds, rain and flooding.”
“You
The project’s third and final phase — the shared-use path — will also have its challenges. Woynarowich says crews will shorten the crawlers’ boom lengths to about 72 metres in order to handle 11 individual components each weighing between 50,000 and 340,000 pounds. Five of them will be handled from one side of the river and six will be handled from the opposite side.
“This will require the maximum Superlift packages that these cranes can take,” Woynarowich says. “These will hang off the back of the cranes and we’ll put extra counterweights on the back of the cranes in order to reach a certain distance with a certain load on the hook of the crane.”
can’t make a mistake. If a piece were to fall or twist or something — you’ve taken a year to fabricate that piece, so it can’t get damaged.”
—
Ryan Teplitsky, project manager, City of Edmonton
The Superlift package will equip the cranes to work beyond their usual parameters. “It gives you another working chart to work to, with added capacity and radii,” Woynarowich says.
The same Enerpac system used to install the arches will be used to manipulate components for the shared-use path, and crews will also employ the Superlift packages used on the deck to enhance the cranes’ capacities for the path.
Once that path is installed, crews will use assorted smaller cranes, including rough terrain cranes with capacities 80-tons and less, which have been on-site, to remove
Edmonton’s Ryan Teplitsky expressed enthusiasm for what he’s seen from the cranes. “Some of the arch pieces weighed over 100 tonnes, and the base segments weighed 125 tonnes,” he points out.
“They were delivered on their side, and (crews) had to pick them up horizontally, slowly raise them into the inclined angle, and then incline them in a different orientation to fit them perfectly in place,” Teplitsky says, referring to the Enerpac system. “They had to use special tools and hydraulics to make that all work. It was fun watching the contractors come up with solutions.”
Teplitsky concedes mild anxiety. “You can’t make a mistake. If a piece were to fall or twist or something — you’ve taken a year to fabricate that piece, so it can’t get damaged.”
The bridge, which has experienced delays attributed to challenges with imported steel components and the advanced nature of the project, is slated to open to traffic by year’s end, with landscaping and other finishing touches possibly extending into early 2018.
Photo courtesy of Garth Woynarowich, Midwest Constructors
Terex/Demag crawler works on replacement of Edmonton’s historic Walterdale Bridge.
symbolic totem pole continued from cover
Brown said the company utilized a 28-ton National 1195 boom truck for the lift.
“It was pretty straight forward,” Brown said. “We had a few meetings downtown. We had to clear out some trees so the boom could lift it. The community rolled it out to us on a dolly and then we rigged it and stood it up and picked it and placed it on its stand.”
Adding to the stress of the lift were more than 500 members of the community who were present as the totem pole was transported into position on a wheeled dolly.
Lift draws a crowd
“They came from a block or two away,” Brown said. “They had drums, they had headgear. We didn’t realize how big of a deal it was. But when we saw how many people it was, it was clear it was a big deal. That was pretty cool to see — all the cameras and all the people surrounding the pole. It was nice to be a part of it.”
Brown said that after they lifted the pole, swung it into position and a contracted construction company bolted the pole into position, members of the Eagle Cranes team had very little time to appreciate their work.
“We didn’t realize how big of a deal it was. But when we saw how many people it was, it was clear it was a big deal. That was pretty cool to see — all the cameras and all the people surrounding the pole. It was nice to be a part of it.”
— Trevor Brown, general manager, Eagle Crane Inc.
“We were shuffled out of there as fast as humanly possible because they had ceremonies that they wanted to do,” Brown said. “Once our part was done, we were pushed rapidly out of there. Not meanly, but they wanted the crane out of there so the whole community could come around the pole and do the ceremonies.”
Once installed, a potlatch ceremony was performed in accordance with Coast Salish and Haida protocols, with many matriarchs, elders and hereditary chiefs on hand, along with Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, according to news reports.
“We are here to honour the survivors of the DTES, the survivors of colonialism, gentrification or poverty,” a CBC News account quoted Audrey Siegl of the Musqueam First Nation.
“It’s a historic day, acknowledging the reconciliation and horrible tragedies of our past that many have suffered in the Aboriginal community; to acknowledge it and to look to a brighter future,” Mayor Robertson said, as quoted by the CBC.
Winnipeg sport centre job continued from cover
square-foot warehouse to serve as their headquarters. The second phase is the 120,000 square foot Qualico Training Centre.
Building a new addition onto the century-old facility posed an interesting challenge to Litz’s crew, said general manager Patrick Szypowski
“The site was unique in that the CIP (cast-in-place) beams in the main floor and a tight schedule precluded hoisting from inside the building,” Szypowski said. “So erection had to take place from the street, necessitating the use of a large crawler crane, with a specific boom and jib combination to make the installation work.”
Crawler the workhorse
That large crawler crane was a 230-ton Manitowoc 4100 SII, which was used to erect the second floor, structural steel and the large roof trusses. A 60-ton Terex RT 665 performed steel and stair shaft erections, while a variety of 25- to 35-ton boom trucks undertook miscellaneous hoisting operations and took care of the canopy.
But the Manitowoc was the workhorse, hoisting pre-cast concrete and erecting structural steel.
“The main structural erection was by the 230 ton,” Szypowski said. “The actual erection craning plan for the superstructure, in this confined location, and with the site limitations, underground structures and weights, required a fair amount of planning and coordination.”
Sport Manitoba purchased a nearby property in order to facilitate the expansion. However, due to the height of the building and the narrow confines of the adjacent area, a very specific and coordinated sequencing operation was required for the installation of precast concrete and steel.
Lifts had little clearance
“The actual erection craning plan for the superstructure, in this confined location, and with the site limitations, underground structures and weights, required a fair amount of planning and coordination.”
—
Patrick Szypowski, general manager, Litz Crane & Rigging
“Many of the lifts were planned to within six inches of clearance for the boom of the crane against one constraint or another,” Szypowski said. “Finally, the site conditions themselves — as far as underground services in the area, an aqueduct, fiber optic cables and the sewer system as well as a host of overhead wires — required quite an intense geotechnical study and a more elaborate crane pad layout and design that had to account for all of these various conditions, and to ensure adequate ground pressures and weight distributions for the hoisting operations.”
Litz finished its work on the superstructure ahead of schedule last summer. The Qualico Training Centre is scheduled for completion by this July. It will include a full gym, training space for provincial team athletes, and 525-foot-long indoor track on the top floor.
Photo courtesy of Litz Crane & Rigging
As the big Manitowoc looms in the background, Litz Crane & Rigging’s 65-ton Terex RT 665 prepares for action.
Cropac sells and rents All -Terrain Cranes, Boom Trucks, Carry Deck, Crawler, Hydraulic Truck, Knuckle, Rough Terrain & Tower Cranes, plus Heavy Forklifts and more, visit www.cropac.com
Photo by Rob O’Flanagan/Guelph Today
Crane
comes up
just short on Ontario water tower job
Company returns the next day with farther-reaching machine
To the crane company that didn’t bring the required jib for the antenna job in Guelph — all is forgiven!
A fully extended Link-Belt crane was recently spotted reaching up to the Guelph water tower on Clair Road, on the outskirts of this small southwestern Ontario city.
In a story headlined “Close, but no cigar,” Guelph Today reporter Rob O’Flanagan described the crane as an impressive sight from afar. However, he wrote, it was clear from up-close that the crane’s reach was not quite far enough.
O’Flanagan’s report, confirmed by Bell Mobility construction project manager Benita Greyling, had a crew upgrading Bell’s telecommunications infrastructure at the top of the water tower just before Christmas.
But after setting up the crane on an adjacent roadway, the crew extended the crane and found it a few metres short.
“We were upgrading current telecommunications infrastructure,” Greyling told Crane & Hoist Canada
The water tower’s height is considered ideal for enabling communications, though Bell operates and maintains antennas at multiple locations in Guelph, including a high-rise, a police station and a firehall, with a view to maintaining region-wide service.
Jib left behind
Bell issued a tender for the job, and the contractor then priced the crane and sent technical drawings to the company supplying the machine.
However, Greyling said, the driver forgot to bring the jib to the job site. So when crews set up the truck-mounted Link-Belt crane to hoist the antennas, they weren’t able to reach the top of the tower.
Greyling says the crane company returned the next day with a Liebherr LTM 1095-5.1, a 125-ton truck-mounted mobile crane, to complete the job.
“I was kind of surprised,” Greyling said. “In my 10 years of being in telecomm, whether I was on the contractor’s side or
the client’s side, this is the only time this has ever happened to me.”
In the end, things worked out. The crane company took the hit and charged only for the second crane, and the project was delayed just one day.
Greyling declined to name names, expressing a forgiving attitude.
“Everybody was kind of nervous answering my questions,” she said. “I think they’re embarrassed. It was an expensive mistake, but we’re human. We all make mistakes, so I won’t hold it against them.”
Crews used the Liebherr to hoist the
“Everybody was kind of nervous answering my questions. I think they’re embarrassed. It was an expensive mistake, but we’re human. We all make mistakes, so I won’t hold it against them.”
— Benita Greyling, construction project manager, Bell Mobility
antennas and related equipment, which were light but too bulky to be carried inside an internal hatchway leading to the top of the tower. Crews climbed up on their own and, once up-top, used a hook to pull the equipment off the crane’s cabling.
Of course, crane companies go to considerable lengths to help service providers reach heights and manage whatever challenges a particular lift might involve.
Link-Belt is no exception, providing its 3D Lift Plan online tool for registered crane owners and users.
“You can log on to this particular web site [www.linkbelt.com] and do a virtual lift,” says Drew Paton, sales manager with Equipment Sales & Service, a Canadian vendor for Link-Belt.
“It shows you the tonnage, the height of the boom, and whether it has a jib or no jib,” Paton said. “It will give you CAD reports and you can do virtual lift plans. So if you have hydro lines in the way, or a tree, or if you need to lift over a building, you can set your parameters accordingly.”
SAUL CHERNOS
Crane can’t reach quite high enough to place antennas on top of Guelph water tower.
Alberta firm earns safety honour
lberta-based NCSG Crane & Heavy Haul Services was among 35 member companies of the Specialized Carriers & Rigging Association to receive safety awards at the association’s recent annual conference.
NCSG, which is headquartered in Acheson, was one of 22 SC&RA member firms to win a Crane & Rigging Safety Award for “superior safety records achieving an incident rate of less than or equal to 1.8, plus an Experience Modification Rate (EMR) of 1.0 or less,” said a news release from the SC&RA.
Another 13 companies received Crane & Rigging Zero Accidents Awards because they “did not record a single accident or injury in the past year.”
With the exception of NCSG, all the other winners are based in the U.S.
The awards were presented at the SC&RA’s annual conference this April in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The association has more than 1,300 members from 46 countries.
Canadian country manager talks telematics at ConExpo
Ken Burke and two other panelists discuss the benefits and pitfalls of telematics and cranes during educational session at Las Vegas Convention Center
KEITH NORBURY
elematics — the collection and analysis of telecommunicated information — is a powerful tool for heavy lift companies, a Canadian crane company manager said during an educational session on the subject at ConExpo-Con/Agg in Las Vegas this March.
Among the benefits of telematics that Ken Burke, country manager for Sarens Canada Inc., and two other panelists espoused during the session are its abilities to enhance safety, recover stolen equipment, and settle disputes with clients over how many hours a crane is in service or broken down during a rental.
Burke also cautioned crane companies about the pitfalls of telematics — not the least being the cost of data. On that score, he urged telematics users to do their “homework” in selecting a telematics provider. (See related story).
No silver bullet
“Before you deploy or before you start down the road of telematics, write yourself a problem statement,” Burke said. “Understand what you actually want and need to do for your business. Be prepared to have some fails. It’s not an easy road. There is no silver bullet. I can guarantee you that right now.”
As an example of the pitfalls, he cited the experience of a previous employer that spent upwards of $2 million on a telematics tracking system that “at the end of the day it was a $2 million cheque, poof, gone.”
On the other hand, he offered examples
from his present employer of telematics successes.
About seven years ago, only about a month after Sarens, which has a presence in 60 countries, started utilizing telematics someone stole a 95-tonne Liebherr all-terrain crane in Europe. “Got to figure someone’s pretty gutsy to drive off with a 95-ton hydraulic AT crane but it happens,” Burke said. But within three days, Sarens recovered the machine.
And just a month before ConExpo, thieves stole two tractor loads of Sarens equipment in Peru. The heist included a compressor equipped with a “black box” containing a SIM card tracking device.
“We followed the breadcrumb trail of the tracker on the compressor and you could see all the various houses where they dropped off flood lights, welders, etc.,” Burke said. “Went to the first house with the local authorities to get the stuff back. An armed contingent of locals came out so we had to get the military involved. But we got all our stuff back.”
Passion for equipment
Joining Burke on the panel were Mick Lauer, director of business development with telematics firm OEM Data Delivery, and Mickey Hammers, equipment coordinator for Traylor Bros. Inc. The Association of Equipment Management Professionals presented the session, titled The Case for Cranes and Telematics: Specialized Circumstances & Concerns.
Burke was the first Canadian to serve as chairman of the AEMP. Before returning to Canada to join Sarens in 2014, he had worked for Bechtel Equipment Operations in Iceland and Houston after previously working for J.D. Irving Woodlands Division.
“Ken has a passion for equipment and heavy equipment industry from managing, repairing and final applications of new technology,” said panel moderator Keith Barrett, director of equipment operations at PC Construction Company.
Burke said Sarens, which has a global fleet of about 1,500 cranes and up to 3,000 units of specialized transport equipment, deploys telematics in 55 countries.
“We manage maintenance, fuel, location, overloads, travel, anemometers in certain
supplied by NCSG Crane & Heavy Haul Services attend to a pipeline pull in Alberta. File photo
Mick Lauer (left), Ken Burke, and Mickey Hammers (right) take part in an educational session on telematics and cranes at ConExpo-Con/Agg 2017 in Las Vegas.
“We manage maintenance, fuel, location, overloads, travel, anemometers in certain situations. All of that we do with a third party
situations,” Burke said. “All of that we do with a third party provider; and we mount the black box on each crane.”
One of the biggest benefits of telematics is on the safety side, he said. For example, Sarens has a process to manage any overrides in the cab of a crane so that a text message is sent to the supervisor and site management. “And with that we’ve had a number of successes where we’ve gone to that individual and either corrected the situation or we’ve even terminated with someone that’s not acting in an appropriate manner with that gear,” Burke said.
Beneficial to clientele
The company also employs telematics on “dry rents” to determine if a customer is underutilizing or overutilizing an asset.
“It’s been very beneficial with regard to our clientele because they’ve got confidence that we’re watching,” Burke said.
It takes a lot of work, though. Sarens has standing orders and an overarching policy from its global operations that everyone in the organization “understands the rules of engagement,” he said. The procedures also include weekly reporting to senior management.
“All of the country managers and/or operations manager get a report and if there’s any exceptions they need to report back to head office on why that situation was what it was,” Burke said. “In turn, we’ve got a solid feedback on the backside of reporting of overrides or excessive travelling, (or) excessive idling of the equipment.”
On the operational side, it means that a customer or supervisor cannot coax an operator to reach for a load outside of safety parameters. “All they have to say is we’ve got a black box that monitors what we’re doing,” Burke said, adding that “the operators are very happy with that.”
“It takes that stress of that immediate uncomfortable situation off of their back and puts it onto the company and our process and our procedures,” Burke continued. “From that perspective, it’s an absolute win.”
Telematics has evolved
Lauer, who opened his remarks with a legal disclosure that he wouldn’t talk about any of his company’s current products, said that telematics has evolved to cover more than just hours of use and location of equipment.
“Telematics concerning cranes should consist of safety, legal risk, operations, production controls, sales, rental, maintenance department, and operator,” Lauer said. “With the correct telematics system, everyone can enjoy the benefits.”
On safety, for example, telematics can determine if a crane has passed its inspection date or if the operator is qualified on
— Ken
Burke, country manager, Sarens Canada Inc.
that specific crane, Lauer said.
Legal risks, meanwhile, are mitigated because telematics takes back control of the daily inspection.
Sales and rental benefit from the correct telematics system because the sales team can use that data to tell a customer that, for example, it’s cheaper to rent a second crane than to pay overtime on the original one.
Maintenance with telematics is more than just tracking hours, Lauer said. It can reveal if there’s enough space on the site to work on a crane and provide a digital log of when the crane went down and when the technician arrived on site.
The correct telematics system can also provide the operator with a direct line of communication with the maintenance and sales departments “without having to pick up the phone,” Lauer said.
Measuring “true utilization”
And telematics can measure what Lauer calls “true utilization,” which is work time versus idle time as opposed to simply measuring run time.
“Is your operator just plumb bobbing all day? Crane lift counts in conjunction with your true data coming in can really give you a great report for you to view,” Lauer said.
A reconciliation report of the true utilization can be sent directly an IPad. That can lead to an explanation for low utilization, for example, such as that a safety inspector required an operator to drag up the outrigger pads, haul in more and rock, and do more compaction of the ground.
“There is a reason for low utilization,” Lauer said. “It doesn’t just mean he’s not operating.”
The correct telematics package can also detect if a customer is working a crane overtime or on weekends in violation of a rental agreement.
“You catch that in the beginning and then you can contact that customer,” Lauer said. “The customer might say, ‘Hey, the job’s changed.’ Well, understand that when that changed, so did your contract.”
Or supposing the customer wasn’t even on the job site on a weekend when the crane was in use. A subcontractor might be using the crane without permission. Telematics can make the machine inoperable if the operator lacks the login code.
“With the correct telematics and feed coming in, you can see when their crane operator downed the crane, right down to the day, time, second and location,” Lauer said. Settles billing disputes
For Hammers’s company, which manages about 150 units, telematics has meant not having to chase those bills. He cited the example of a crane barge that rents for
$100,000 a month. The overtime charge for one month of $50,000 “pays for everything for us,” he said.
Telematics can also deal with legal actions. By making daily inspections electronic, it negates any attempt by the customer to create bogus reports after the fact.
“And that will eliminate you going to court because you can sit there and you can say (to the customer) that your operator that you qualified for that crane signed in the day of the accident or the incident and said that crane was good to go,” Lauer said.
Hammers picked up that theme as well, noting that most new cranes have a data logger or telematics system on board. “You end up in a court of law from an accident
and it’s not going to take long before someone is going to ask you why didn’t you use that data?” Hammers said.
Crane accidents are often catastrophic and predominantly a result of human error, Hammers noted using a series of slides to illustrate the point. They included one of a toppled crane that a had dozer tied to its it. “I guess he thought he was going to add some counterweight but it didn’t help him,” Hammers observed.
Appeals to younger workers
His company is in the early phases of using telematics in its operator training. The firm has also instituted a policy requiring operators to check the twoblock and the high-angle kick outs during their daily inspections. “I hate to say it, but I think throughout the industry it’s been a common problem and a lot of those inspections get pencil whipped so to speak,” Hammers said. His company has been using telematics for about 15 years. However, Hammers had to admit that some employees “still don’t utilize it like they should.” Younger workers are more likely to use it. “If they don’t get a report, they are the first ones to call you and say, ‘Hey, where is this
Larry Biggers, of Shelton, Conn.-based OEM Data Delivery, staffs the ConExpo 2017 booth of the company, which makes telematics devices and systems for off-highway equipment.
TELEMATICS
International telematics standard for cranes “next step” for AEMP
KEITH NORBURY
With an international mixedfleet standard for “yellow iron” telematics now in place, the next step is to start work on a similar standard for cranes, the country manager for Sarens Canada said during an educational session this March at the ConExpo-Con/Agg trade show.
Ken Burke noted that last fall the International Organization for Standardization approved a yellow iron telematics standard that had been developed by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers and Association of Equipment Management Professionals.
“So the next step is to start working on an ISO standard for cranes,” said Burke, a former chairman of the AEMP, during the session on crane telematics held at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
“What does that ISO standard do?” Burke continued. “What it means is that all of those aftermarket boxes that you had to put on because you’ve got a mixed fleet that doesn’t have to happen any more.”
A crane ISO standard will have an application programming interface, or API, which Burke described as a common platform, “where all of the specific data points will reside.”
A subscriber to that API will be able to pull that data into its enterprise system, he added.
“It’ll all be in the same format so it doesn’t matter,” Burke said. “It becomes manufacturer agnostic. And it just moves our industry ahead, makes it a better, safer and more profitable business to be in.”
The ISO approved the multi-fleet telematics standard for earthmoving and mobile road construction machinery last July and published the standard in November.
While that standard focuses on earth-moving equipment, the data can apply to other machinery types, the AEM noted in a news release last summer. Data points, for example, include location, idle time, distance traveled, operating hours, fuel usage, engine operation times, idle codes, and various diagnostic codes.
Burke said that telematics for yellow iron is “really well-established” and monitors 19 data points.
“Even if we can get the crane manufacturers going forward to adopt that ISO standard — so get the basics like power, fuel and things like that — that’s a step. And that’s free. The manufacturers are already doing that.”
The International Standards Association recently published a mixed-fleet telematics standard for “yellow iron.”
information?’ So it’s definitely an up-and-coming tool,” Hammers said.
Telematics can also track the location of attachments, which particularly benefits companies with multiple yards, Lauer said. That negates having to ship in something from hundreds of miles when an identical piece of equipment was due to return the next day.
It’s a similar situation with cranes themselves.
“If you’re a crane rental company, nobody wants a 90-ton or a 100-ton RT until you have none on the yard,” Lauer said. But rather than having to bring in a crane from hundreds of miles away, telematics can reveal that another customer nearby has such a unit that isn’t being used.
Become a hero
“You can be a hero in this situation, and we’ve done this many times, ” Lauer said. The scenario involves calling the customer who isn’t using the 90-ton crane and saying, “Man, I hate to see you spending all that money and everything. Can we go ahead and take that off rent?”
The customer is grateful that you’re watching out for him and vows to do even more business with you, Lauer said. “In reality what you’ve just done is you’re trying eliminate that $13,000, $14,000 shipping cost of bringing one in when you know you’ve got a crane that’s not being used.”
One major caution is that telematics can provide too much data, he said. “It’s just like your cellphone — the more data you transfer, the more it’s going to cost you,” Lauer said.
He advises only transferring the data you need — which might just be location and hours. Or negotiate with the telematics provider for a reduced fee.
Later, Burke picked up on that notion as well, saying it’s important to figure out the payback on those data expenditures. The cheapest he has found works out to about $3 a month per asset. And that isn’t using SIM cards, a technology usually associated with cellphones. With SIMs, it’s possible to buy monthly blocks of data and drive the price down, he added.
Pay attention to fees
About the best price he has encountered for two hits a day and “very strong exception reporting in your system,” which means smarter boxes on each piece of gear, is in the $8 to $10 range. But the starting rate for those is $20 to $25 “until you start negotiating,” he said.
That can be a significant chunk of cash, depending on the size of the fleet.
“It’s that data transfer and the management fees for the data that you really need to pay attention to,” Burke said. “Understand what you want to consume. Always ask, ‘What’s going to make me money?’ If I’m saving engines and making sure that my gear is being serviced on time, there’s a value in that. You should be able to baseline how many engines or components you’ve lost from the service issue before and after.”
For example, such an analysis might determine that it makes no sense to track a 25-ton shackle when it’s probably cheaper just to buy a new one.
“Whatever you do, buy a solution that’s established and been around,” he said.
And make the system configurable. You don’t want to have to write you own code because updates cost money.
“Don’t always look for the space shuttle solution,” Burke said. “Start out with the old Ford Pinto for a bit and then once you get your feet under you, you can move forward.”
Take care in picking a telematics provider
hen choosing a telematics provider, take the time to interview and review the potential candidates, says the country manager for Sarens Canada Inc.
“If you’re in the equipment business like I have been for a number of years, you’ll hear four calls a week of a new telematics provider that has the answer,” said Ken Burke, during a panel discussion on cranes and telematics at the recent ConExpo-Con Agg trade show in Las Vegas. “Make sure you vet those individuals. There’s a lot of very smart people that come up with an innovative solution. But look at long how they’ve been in business. Understand the depth of the company.”
In making a decision, find out how robust the company’s data based is, he added. And be aware that the industry has had many ownership changes and acquisitions in its short history.
“The guys that were around four years ago aren’t around any more. They’ve got bought up; they’ve gone out of business,” Burke said. “The one smart guy that was there took the buyout and went to the Bahamas and retired. Now all of a sudden you’ve got something that doesn’t work. So please do your homework.”
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Rescuing woman from crane as easy as climbing a big tree
SAUL CHERNOS
hen Toronto Fire Services Acting Captain Rob Wonfor was tasked with climbing a tower crane to rescue a young crane climber, he was already mentally prepared for the two-hour mission.
An arborist in his spare time, Wonfor is comfortable working in trees and anticipated he would be called upon.
Wonfor had just returned from another alarm, and with his 24-hour shift less than four hours from ending he was thinking about the departmental hockey tournament scheduled for that morning.
As they beetled toward the condominium construction site at 50 Wellesley St., just east of Yonge Street on the north edge of the downtown core, crew members knew someone was stuck high up a crane. But details were vague, and Wonfor was readying himself for whatever might lie ahead.
“We train for all types of odd rescues — trench, elevator, anything weird, confined space, water, ice,” Wonfor said. “We have the capabilities to do rope rescue, low angle, high angle.”
Thankfully, crane climber rescues aren’t the norm. “We get swing stage operators and window cleaners who get stuck, and we’re trained to get a crane operator who’s had a heart attack. But this was kind of unique.”
On site, Wonfor peered through binoculars and saw a young woman alone alternately sitting and standing on the pulley block.
“Volun-told” for the job
“Four or five of us got dressed to prepare to go up,” Wonfor said, adding he was ultimately “volun-told” for the job because of his arborist experience.
“I’m in trees all the time, and that crane was just like a big tree,” he said. “It has lots of branches, and it’s on an angle.”
ness and tethered it to himself so they would both have fall protection.
Crane rotated for grass landing
A crane operator brought in to operate the crane rotated the boom so Wonfor and the climber would land on grass in a neighbouring parkette rather than on the construction site
“When we got to the ground, I got a cheer and she was taken away in handcuffs,” Wonfor said, expressing awe at the climber’s abilities.
“I want to talk to her to see how she did that,” Wonfor said, adding he would value anything he could learn but would never consider a rescue without full fall protection.
Wonfor said he feels heartened by his role in preventing a possible catastrophe but knows others on his squad could also have done the job.
Make that a very big tree. Wonfor said one police officer used a distance finder to calculate 208 feet from the base of the Terex Comedil CTL 260 tower crane to its tip.
Wonfor’s mission: To reach the climber, secure her with ropes, then have the two of them lowered down.
News reports speculated the woman climbed freestyle, then glided down a rope to the pulley block. But Wonfor said rescuers didn’t know how the woman climbed the 13.5-ton capacity crane and had to carefully plan how to reach her.
“We’re safe going out on a horizontal ledge, but climbing that crane at an angle changed the dynamics of what we normally encounter and are used to,” Wonfor said.
After harnessing himself with hooks, carabiners and two ropes for fall protection, Wonfor ambled along inside the crane shaft before setting out on the 50-metre boom towards the climber.
“When I got to eye level with her, about two-thirds of the way up the boom, I started talking to her and knew she was very calm,” Wonfor said.
After radioing his crew to lower the boom so he could reach the climber, Wonfor placed her inside a rescue har-
“It’s neat to be involved in that, but it was just our shift and I was the guy to go up. There was another shift with an arborist at our hall, and he could just as easily have been the one.”
Wonfor was a little late for his hockey tournament, and the woman he rescued, Marisa Lazo, 23, of Toronto, was charged with six counts of mischief.
TMG Builders, which is constructing the 37-storey condo tower, didn’t return calls for comment.
Mike Gallagher, business manager with the International Union Of Operating Engineers local 793, says climbers need to be discouraged and prevented in whatever way possible.
“If it means more surveillance, more security — whatever,” Gallagher said. “It’s not the place for thrill seekers.”
Gallagher said no security concerns about this particular site have been brought to his attention. However, he wonders how the climber managed to reach the crane’s pulley.
“She endangered herself but she also created a lot of cost to the workers on the site,” Gallagher said. “They were delayed in being able to get to work that day because their site was shut down.”
Toronto Fire Services Acting Captain Rob Wonfor rescues woman from pulley block of Terex Comedil CTL 260 tower crane in downtown Toronto. CBC screen capture
Terex Comedil CTL 260 tower crane remains on jobsite after rescue of thrill-seeker.
Photo by Saul Chernos
Cranes return lighthouse to its Nova Scotia home
After 40 years away, lighthouse returns to the waterfront of Digby, N.S.
or nearly 70 years, a defining feature of the waterfront of Digby, a town of just over 2,000 on Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Basin, was a gleaming lighthouse. Or so it was until 1972, when the Princess Acadia ferry moved to a new docking facility outside of town. The lighthouse was then deemed redundant, disassembled, and sailed across the Bay of Fundy to Saint John, N.B.
Now, after 40 years away, the Digby lighthouse has been re-erected on its home waterfront, thanks to the efforts of Keddy’s Crane Rentals Ltd.
“We were always aware that it was a Digby lighthouse — that it came from Digby,” said Digby Mayor Ben Cleveland. “Seven years ago, I went to meet the new mayor (of Saint John) and while I was there I asked for our lighthouse back. Lo and behold, they said yes.”
Prize win made move possible
The lighthouse remained in storage at a Nova Scotia Department of Transportation facility for three and a half years until the town won funding in the Lighthouse Matters contest put on by the National Trust For Canada. (CBC reported that Digby had won the grand prize of $15,000.) With that money, Digby could afford to contract crane operators to bring the lighthouse home.
“I think they were a little surprised when I called them and asked them to move a lighthouse,” Cleveland said. “I don’t think it’s something they normally move.”
Owen Keddy of Keddy’s Crane Rentals Ltd. said the lighthouse was in two pieces when his crew arrived at the DOT facility. A forklift and loader mostly handled the top piece, leaving Keddy responsible for the bottom half.
“What we had to do was to pick it up and lay it down on to a trailer,” Keddy recalled. “We had to use two boom trucks to do that. We picked it up with one boom truck. We had our spreader bar and picked it up. When we got there, we had the guy brace it both ways inside so we wouldn’t hurt the structure. The other crane got a hold of the bottom of it and he picked the bottom as I was laying the lighthouse down. We laid it down on the ground, we had to re-rig, and then pick it up on its side and set it down on the tractor trailer.”
Boom trucks brought in
Once the tractor trailer arrived at the waterfront, Keddy and his co-workers performed the exact same sequence of events but backwards — lifting the lighthouse off the trailer, tipping it right side up, and lowering it into position.
“We had a 32-tonne boom truck for the initial lift,” Keddy said. “You had to pick the whole thing with one boom truck to start
“I think they were a little surprised when I called them and asked them to move a lighthouse. I don’t think it’s something they normally move.”
— Ben Cleveland, mayor, Digby, N.S.
with. Then we had a smaller boom truck, an 18-tonne, and he got a hold of the bottom, what we call tailing. He picked it as I let it down.”
The biggest challenge of the job was rigging the lighthouse for picking, due to its conical shape. A carpenter braced the structure from the inside with 2x4s, to ensure it didn’t collapse on itself. However, with that taken care of, it was a relatively straight-forward procedure, which took Keddy’s crew about five hours to complete.
(The lighthouse was repainted and shingled in time for a re-dedication celebration last summer, according to a posting on lighthousefriends.com.)
“It looks nice now,” Keddy said. “We were down there the other night for a job and I drove by. It looked really nice.”
Mayor Cleveland said the lighthouse is a key part of Digby history and it’s only right to have it back home.
“Any lighthouse in the Maritimes means a lot to the community,” Cleveland said. “It’s the last thing you see when you go to sea and the first thing you see when you come back. It really got the community engaged and excited about getting back a piece of Digby that left 40 years ago.”
MATT JONES
Workers load bottom section of the lighthouse onto a trailer to transport it from Saint John, N.B., back to Digby.
Workers with Keddy’s Crane Rentals Ltd. return an old lighthouse to the Digby, N.S., waterfront after an absence of over 40 years.
Two sections of lighthouse are back in place ready for further restoration work.
B.C.-based auctioneers complete IronPlanet deal
ancouver-headquartered Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers has finalized it acquisition of online equipment auctioneers IronPlanet.
The companies announced completion of the $758.5 million acquisition, “subject to customary closing adjustments,” in a news release May 31.
“We are pleased that the acquisition of IronPlanet has been completed and I am delighted to welcome IronPlanet employees to the Ritchie Bros. family,” Ritchie Bros. CEO Ravi Saligram said in the release. “Our shared passion for serving customers is loud and clear and it will continue to be our guiding light in the unified company.”
The acquisition, first announced in August 2016, also includes “an initial five-year strategic alliance with Caterpillar,” the release noted. Ritchie Bros. expects that alliance will strengthen its relationship with independent Caterpillar dealers worldwide “by providing them enhanced and continued access to a global auction marketplace to sell their used equipment.”
Greg Owens, former CEO of IronPlanet, has been appointed group president of new sectors and ventures. In that role, he will “oversee all aspects of the Cat Strategic Alliance, GovPlanet and Kruse Energy,” the release said. “He will also explore ventures
to enter new sectors and businesses, both organically and through acquisitions.”
Already the world’s largest auctioneer of heavy equipment such as cranes, Ritchie Bros. financed the IronPlanet purchase through a combination of a senior note offering that was announced previously as well as a secured term loan facility. “The transaction is expected to be earnings accretive within the first year, excluding acquisition related costs,” the release said.
GovPlanet, Kruse Energy, and Mascus, a global online equipment listing service that Ritchie Bros. acquired in 2016, will remain as stand-alone businesses with stand-alone sales teams, “given that they serve specialized customer segments,” the release said.
However, acquiring IronPlanet accelerates the “strategy of becoming a one-stop, multichannel company where customers can buy, sell or list equipment, when, how and where they choose – both onsite and online.” Ritchie Bros. also plans to combine its Equipment One brand with IronPlanet’s DailyMarketplace to created a harmonized Marketplace E “that gives customers more ways to set reserve pricing.”
Ritchie Bros. will maintain headquarters in Vancouver with IronPlanet’s headquarters in Pleasanton, Calif., becoming a key technology hub.
Ontario-based union local adds $7.1
million property
Residence for training centre planned for new 6.14-acre property
The head office of a union that represents operators of cranes and other heavy machinery is adding over six acres to its grounds.
The executive board of the International Union of Operating Engineers’ local 793 has approved the $7.1 million purchase of a 6.14-acre parcel at 2201 Speers Rd. adjacent to the current head office property, said a news release from the union.
With the deal, which officially closes June 14, the local will own nearly 20 acres at its Oakville site.
“The purchase of this property makes sense for our union and the members of local 793 because we are growing and in need of more space,” said local 793 business manager Mike Gallagher. “The executive board and I felt this was a great investment for the future of our union.”
Local 793 plans to construct a new residence on the property for student’s training at the nearby Operating Engineers Training Institute of Ontario. To create space for the residence, an existing 27,000 square foot building on the property will be demolished.
The union bought the property from Procor Ltd., which manages rail tank and freight cars. The company will lease half
The Unmistakable Power of Strongco
the existing building until December
The union also plans to expand the banquet hall on its head office property.
“Purchasing this property will enable students to be housed in one location in one residence,” the release quoted local 793 president Joe Redshaw. “Apprentices will no longer be forced to commute back and forth to the training campus. That way they will be able to concentrate on their training instead of looking for accommodation.”
Local 793 represents about 15,000 highly skilled crane and heavy equipment operators across Ontario. In addition to the Oakville facilities, the local has a training campus in Morrisburg.
Ravi Saligram
Greg Owens
Local 793 of the International Union of Operating Engineers is adding 6.14 acres to its head office location in Oakville, Ont.
Photo submitted
Toy crane designers aim for authenticity
A challenge is determining which crane features can be replicated in miniature
ince the late 1940s, Danish toy giant Lego’s building kits have been a childhood staple for many people around the world. With the re-playability and creativity that Lego engenders, building kits have long been considered ideal for children of all ages. Part of Lego’s appeal is the way that it seeks to create an all-encompassing world — one where you can find a miniature representation of almost anything, including cranes.
Amanda Santoro, brand relations manager for The Lego Group, says that the company’s design teams conduct extensive research when bringing a piece of equipment like a crane into the Lego world.
“Our designers spend a significant amount of time immersing themselves in whatever topic they are bringing to life in Lego form,” Santoro says. “In this case, reference materials such as photos, video and schematics would complement. In many cases, actual site visits to study and sometimes even operate reference vehicles.”
The challenge is to determine which features on a full-sized piece of equipment can be effectively replicated on a small scale.
“That’s part of the challenge of our designers’ jobs — to know how to balance the desire for realism with the practicality of construction,” Santoro says. “Often that is driven by the age for which a model is intended, as a more detailed and complicated model would be too challenging for a younger builder, for example.”
New boom truck boosts capabilities of New Brunswick-based company
To address the varying needs of users, Lego has multiple lines of building kits. The most common is called System — kits that are generally designed in scale with Lego’s famous yellow-faced minifigures. For building kits designed more for accuracy and function, one must turn to the Technic line, which includes more complicated parts such as pins, axles and gears.
“System is more decorative — Technic on the other hand is all about making working, functional components,” says Will Reed, vice-president of California’s Sacramento Brick Builders and an author who has written articles about Lego for a variety of publications, including the website Brick Blogger. “This means that things like boom arms on a crane are more soundly built and hold up better if you use Technic. Additionally, the use of gears can add greater lifting potential or just make a design more compact. The majority of crane sets have come from the Technic line. Even when they appear in Systembased sets, you will often see Technic components utilized in the building of the crane.”
Santoro says that Lego seeks to create building kits that achieve a realistic look and functionality wherever possible.
“Lego City [System] cranes are more replicating the idea of crane in look and simple functions, while a Lego Technic crane would be more realistic and advanced,” Santoro says. “I’m certain that there will always be things that our designers see as ways of improving or delivering an extended experience as they continue to refine our crane replicas. They work
A 45-ton boom truck has proven to be a valuable addition to the fleet of New Brunswick-based Irving Equipment, says a recent news release from the boom truck’s manufacturer.
Since acquiring the National Crane NBT45 in September 2016, “Irving has used the crane on a variety of jobs that would have otherwise called for a hydraulic, truck-mounted crane,” said the news release from Manitowoc Cranes.
“When we took a close look at our fleet, we realized we had a service gap that we needed to fill,” Victor Murty, operations manager for Irving Equipment, said in the news release. “A lot of the jobs we do involve high-reach, low-capacity lifts. We would usually use a hydraulic, truck-mounted crane or an all-terrain crane for these jobs, both of which require a separate truck to haul extra counterweight. The NBT45 gives us the reach we need along with added mobility to get more work done for our customers in less time.”
The custom-built machine is equipped with 142 feet of main boom, the release noted. Four companies collaborated on the configuration, build, and delivery of the machine — Irving Equipment; Manitowoc Cranes; Manchester, Conn.-based Shawmut Equipment; and Universal Truck and Trailer, an affiliate of J.D. Irving based in Dieppe, N.B. The result was “an innovative lifting solution” that complies with Transport Canada regulations.
Murty said the design is unlike that of other models found in his part of the country.
“It’s a tandem steer with three axles in the back as opposed to a single steer with a cluster in the back — the pusher axle is in the front of the rear axle instead of behind, as is usually the case in other provinces or states,” he said.
tirelessly to deliver compelling building experiences, so every new model is their favourite.”
For Reed’s part, like many hardcore fans, he has his own notions of where the evolution of Lego cranes should be focused.
“As for evolutions needed, I can see two major areas. The first has to do with figuring out weight limits and tolerances. Right now there is no standard measurement that tells a builder that such and such a line can withstand a particular amount of tension. The other evolution I can imagine coming up with is more complex string mechanics. Right now, a string is nothing more than a simple line. However, if we had the ability to fit multiple lines in a single flexible cable system or allowed our lines to carry an electric charge, we might be able to see additional functionality at the end of what dangles from a crane.”
Santoro says Lego’s designers are always working on new evolutions. However, “if I told you what they are, it would ruin the potential surprise.”
Montreal cranes no longer rare
“We purchased the chassis from Universal Truck and Trailer and sent it to Manitowoc for the custom assembly. It was a lot of time and effort, but well worth it to be able to give our customers such an innovative, cost-effective lift solution.”
Irving Equipment now owns 14 National Cranes, all supplied by Shawmut, which has served the Atlantic provinces and New England since 1957.
Headquartered in Saint John, N.B., Irving Equipment has provided heavy lifting and related services to Atlantic Canada for over 50 years.
After decades when construction cranes were as rare “as whooping cranes,” Montreal’s skyline “is sprouting several new towers,” a local columnist wrote in celebration of the city’s 375th anniversary this May.
“Your complexion is still pockmarked with cracks, creases and potholes, while your streets sag and your bridges shudder,” the Montreal Gazette’s Josh Freed wrote in the May 20 edition. “But you’re getting a big facelift now — and God knows it better work, because your re-construction work is aging us all fast.”
MATT JONES
The 2015 Lego City Demolition Site features a mobile crane with a wrecking ball attachment. The mobile crane combines traditional Lego System pieces with more versatile Technic pieces, allowing for more authentic functionality.
Photo courtesy of The Lego Group
Cranes work in downtown Montreal in the spring of 2015.
File photo
Gathered in front of Irving Equipment’s new National Crane NBT45 boom truck are, from left, Stephane Gauthier, district sales manager for Western Star; Gregory Marr, truck sales professional for Universal Truck and Trailer; Victor Murty, operations manager for Irving Equipment; Chris Oram, logistics coordinator for Irving Equipment; Julien Raby, engineering team lead for Irving Equipment; Joe Vergoni, vice president of Shawmut Equipment; and Travis Boudreau, crane operator for Irving Equipment.
Photo submitted
Tower cranes build towers for Ontario waterfront jewel
ammerhead tower cranes from Terex Corporation are on the job of a three-building residential-commercial project in Burlington, Ont., overlooking Lake Ontario.
Described as “the crown jewel of the waterfront,” the $210 million Bridgewater Residences on the Lake, features a landmark 22-storey structure, a secondary seven-storey building, and an 8.5-storey building that includes a five-star hotel, said a news release from Terex Corporation.
Expected to take nearly three years to complete, the project, which is being built on less than two acres, requires a variety of cranes. “However, a majority of the day-to-day lifting will be left to two cranes towering over the worksite for approximately two years,” the release said.
MTN Forming Inc. — the Bolton, Ont. company tasked with the project’s structural formwork — relied on Cropac Equipment Company and C&C Crane Services, an Oakville, Ont. company, to supply the cranes. They chose two Terex hammerhead tower crane models, the SK 315 and SK 415.
Prepared for weather
“We had just under two acres to cover, and we had to lift a variety of materials, including precast steel reinforced with core slab.”
All-terrain crane assists with erecting the hammerheads
Washington state companies sold to B.C.-based company
B.C.-based Leavitt Cranes has acquired the assets of two Washington state-based companies from Tennessee-based Barnhart Crane & Rigging Co. Leavitt Cranes, which is headquartered in Abbotsford, acquired the assets of Pacific Tower Crane and Pacific Equipment effective April 7, said a recent news release.
“The acquisition of Pacific Tower Crane and Pacific Lift Equipment brings new opportunities to Leavitt Cranes, as well as new opportunities to customers,” the news release quoted Tom Leavitt, CEO and president of Leavitt Cranes and its sister company Leavitt Machinery.
— Kevin Carey, owner, C&C
Crane Services
“While being on the lake provides spectacular views for residents, we had to account for the high lakeside winds, lake-effect snow, and extreme cold for the project,” the release quoted Joel Hunt, sales representative for Cropac Equipment. “Freestanding heights came into play for the project to reduce setup time and cost, and we chose the cranes that gave us the highest freestanding height capability.”
The SK 315 has a capacity of eight to 16-tonnes, while the larger SK 415 boasts a maximum lift capacity of 20 tonnes. The latter could lift the 9.3 tonnes at a 50-metre radius that was needed on the project, said Kevin Carey, owner of C&C Crane Services.
“We had just under two acres to cover, and we had to lift a variety of materials, including precast steel reinforced with core slab,” Carey said.
After Cropac delivered the cranes to the site in September 2016, a crew of six from C&C Crane and Total Crane Rental of Bolton, Ont., erected the machines with the help of a Terex AC 250-1 all-terrain crane. That 250-tonne capacity class machine features a 70-metre main boom length, “which allowed crew members to quickly install the tower and jib sections for both cranes,” the release noted.
Materials the cranes are lifting include formwork, rebar, structural steel, concrete, equipment, and tools. “Careful planning for the number, type, height, jib length and capacity of the cranes must be considered, so the entire project site is covered where needed,” the release said.
Sturdy tower segments
Each of the heavy-duty tower sections for the two SK cranes measured 7.8 feet wide by eight feet high and 19.5 feet long. The shorter SK 315 crane was built with nine tower sections under the 131.3-foot long jib for a total freestanding height of 178.8 feet. For the construction’s first phase, the SK 415 crane was built with 11 tower segments to a height of 214.9 feet to clear the SK 315 crane when working at radius. The SK 415 also included a 164-foot jib.
“Due to the sturdy construction of the tower segments, we were able to maximize freestanding height at the beginning of the construction cycle to expedite initial crane set-up,” Hunt said.
Carey added that because the cranes didn’t have to be tied back each one was erected and working within an eight-hour work day, “which saved time on the job.”
As work advances on the 22-storey structure, another five tower sections with tie-back to the structure will be added to the SK 415 crane for a total hook height of 312.4 feet. The cranes are also working in all kinds of weather — snow, rain, and sun — in Burlington, a city of around 185,000 residents about 15 kilometres north of Hamilton.
“We selected these cranes because of their reliability, low-maintenance history and service,” Carey said. “Both the SK 315 and SK 415 have excellent proven track records in all aspects, especially lifting performance and operator satisfaction.”
For more information about Cropac Equipment, which began business in 1977, visit www.cropac.com. For more on Terex, visit www.terex.com.
Leavitt Cranes has experienced “significant growth throughout the Pacific Northwest” in recent years, the release noted. Acquiring an additional tower crane division “solidifies” Leavitt’s position “as one of the largest tower crane dealers” in its territory.
A large facility in Tacoma, Wash., will accommodate Leavitt Cranes’s service team and operations. The company will also establish in Mount Vernon, Wash., to support its administrative and management group, the release said.
The acquisition has been smooth with Leavitt Cranes retaining most of the acquired company’s employees.
“As with Leavitt Machinery, Leavitt Cranes provides customers with a variety of industry leading brands which means the customer comes first,” the release quoted Leavitt senior vice-president Bob McIntosh. “It is my hope that with an increased product line and multiple brands to serve them, customers will have more options and will benefit from an increased product offering.”
Thom Sicklesteel will be general manager for Leavitt Cranes’ U.S. operations.
Barnhart had bought Sicklesteel Cranes in 2015. That purchase included Pacific Tower Crane and Pacific Lift Equipment as well as mobile crane and rigging entities. In choosing to focus on the mobile and related parts of the business, Barnhart sold Sicklesteel’s tower crane divisions to Leavitt Cranes.
Leavitt Machinery was founded in 2001. Formerly a division of Leavitt Machinery, Leavitt Cranes grew so much that it branched off to become its own company, the news release said. With over 15 years of experience, Leavitt Cranes supports such brands as Terex, Kroll, Manitex, Jekko, and Smartlift, as well as Butti under-the-hook accessories and attachments.
Terex AC 250-1 all-terrain crane helps erect one of two Terex hammerhead tower cranes on the site of the Bridgewater Residences on the Lake project in Burlington, Ont.
Photos courtesy of Terex Corporation
Erected Terex hammerhead tower cranes ready to work on Burlington, Ont. project.
Crews assemble Terex hammerhead crane at residential-commercial project in Burlington, Ont.
Leavitt Cranes, a sister company of Leavitt Machinery, has acquired the assets of two crane companies in Washington state.
New luffer launched
Anew machine has been added to the luffing crane lineup of Italybased Raimondi Cranes SpA.
The new LR213 is ideal for urban job sites, said a news release from the manufacturer. For example, the LR213 works particularly well where high-rise buildings are nearby or where flyover rights are difficult to obtain, the release noted.
The new crane is the largest in Raimondi’s luffing range. It comes with five jib length configurations, from 28 to 55 metres, which can all reach the maximum capacity of 14,000 kilograms. For the 55-metre configuration, the maximum tip load is 2,250 kg.
The LR213 can lift its maximum load “without reduction of capacity with the full jib of 55 meters,” Domenico Ciano, Raimondi Cranes technical director, said in the release. “This not only increases loading capacity, but also increases speed and additional rope capacity.”
Two new hoisting winches, of 55 and 75 kilowatts and specifically designed for luffing cranes, are available on the LR213. They increase speed, control, and rope capacity at both power levels, Ciano said.
“The crane is easy to maintain, with hoisting and luffing winches mounted on the big counterjib platform,” he added. “An increased counterjib surface is a result of the two lateral big service platforms. All the safety mechanisms and electronic devices are located on the counterjib, hence easy access for technicians and operators alike.”
The LR213 can carry 1,000 metres of rope on its drum, “allowing for a lifting capacity of 14 tonnes in four falls at a working
height of 250 meters,” Ciano said, noting three LR213s have been chosen to work on a 250-metre Marriott Hotel in Qatar.
A single electrical cabinet installed on the cabinet platform enables quick installation and cable connection, the release said.
Raimondi, which by mid July had begun deliveries of the new crane, recommends pairing it with the company’s new deluxe R16 crane cabin.
That cabin has front and side windshields that make up more than 80 per cent of the cabin surface, giving an operator a full job-site view, Raimondi announced in an earlier release. It employs two-tone windshield glass that improves insulation while reducing glare, the release noted.
The cabin also has a new V.30 control system, or human-machine interface, as well as anemometer, black box, radius, load, and wind indicators.
For more information, about Raimondi, visit www.http://raimondi.co.
Prototype truck cranes introduced
Palfinger brought a pair of prototype truck cranes to the Work Truck Show in Indianapolis this March.
One of the cranes, the PS6500, was expected to be in production within about two months of the show, said Brian Heffron, national sales manager for Omaha Standard Palfinger. The PS6500 has a 992-pound capacity for the entire reach of the crane, he said.
The other prototype, the 2,000-pound capacity PS10000, needs more work before it goes into production, he said.
That prototype has a “very high end boom section” that is a robotically bent, single-weld X hexagonal boom like on Palfinger’s bigger cranes.
“The cylinder is a little oversized for it so there’s things we need to scale down,” Heffron said. “It’s overkill, way, way, way overkill.”
The company decided to bring the prototype to the Work Truck Show to let the market know that it planned to round out its line of cranes, which has had a gap
below the 3,200-pound capacity models, and to get some feedback.
“We wanted to let the market know that Palfinger is going to finish out this line and just keep going,” Heffron said.
A popular feature on the PS10000 is its hydraulic winch, which Palfinger has on larger models.
“We’re eliminating electric winches, which are always a problem for an electric-over-hydraulic crane,” he said.
Prototype crane leads to a different model
At the 2016 Work Truck Show, Venco Venturo Industries LLC presented a prototype articulating crane for European-style vans like the Ford Transit.
The idea was to get some feedback on the model, said Venco Venturo president Brett Collins.
Some of the feedback he received was “that’s a really interesting concept; can we apply it to the enclosed service vans like the Knapheide KUV, or the Reading CSV, or the Royal RSV?”
The result was that he returned to the Work Truck Show this March in Indianapolis with a production model of a manual telescopic-boom crane, dubbed the ESV1000, for those enclosed vans.
“It’s a great example of how product development is an ongoing activity,” Collins said during an interview at the show. “You develop one thing, you get feedback, you tweak it, you develop another product. You might end up with something you weren’t really anticipating because of the feedback you got on your original design.”
What he discovered was that “people were looking for a rigid heavy duty industrial crane for a small enclosed service van that was easy to install, that was sized to fit the application, and didn’t require structural reinforcement of the van.”
So the company, which is based in Cincinnati, Ohio, secured a Knapheide KUV and figured out how to mount the crane’s winch so that it wouldn’t obstruct the boom as it folded up against the door.
The ESV1000 has a 1,000-pound capacity with a telescopic boom that adjusts to several positions to accommodate various heights and widths of doors.
“It can be changed or it can be left the same for your particular application,” Collins said. “We hadn’t even thought of some applications, like pickup truck or service body, but we had a couple of people come in today and say, ‘Hey, this would work perfect in a service body.’ I guess it would — we’ve got other cranes for that type of application. But, hey, it’s the customers and the upfitters that really make those judgment calls on the best application for this.”
Brett Collins, president of Venco Venturo LLC, shows how the company’s new ESV1000 crane fits inside an enclosed service body or van.
Brian Heffron of Palfinger North America Group stands behind the prototype PSC 10000 crane at the Palfinger booth at the 2017 NTEA Work Truck Show.
Raimondi’s new LR213 luffing crane pairs well with new R16 crane cabin.
“Participate in the premiere conference for the pipelines engineering, utilities, and surveying industries.”
http://www.pipelinesconference.org
Aug. 24-26, 2017
Great American Trucking Show
Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, Dallas, Texas
“The Great American Trucking Show is a trucking convention with over 500,000 feet of exhibit space that happens in Dallas in August each year.”
http://www.gatsonline.com/
SEPTEMBER 2017
Sept. 12-13, 2017
Oil Sands Trade Show & Conference
Suncor Community Leisure Centre, Fort McMurray, Alta.
“Spanning over 99,000 net square feet of exhibit space, the show brings industry professionals face-to-face with over 400 suppliers and services companies showcasing the newest technologies, products and services at the forefront of the oil sands industry.”
http://oilsandstradeshow.com
Sept. 14, 2017
Lift & Move USA
Buchanan Hauling, Indianapolis, Ind.
“Find a great career in the crane, rigging and specialized transport industries.” http://www.liftandmoveusa.com
Sept. 17-19, 2017
Intermodal Expo
Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach, Calif.
“Find 3PLs, ocean carriers, motor carriers and drayage companies, railroads, equipment manufacturers and leasing companies, technology vendors, shippers/ BCOs and many more intermodal industry professionals.”
http://www.intermodalexpo.com/
Sept. 17-20, 2017
Railway 2017 Interchange
Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis, Ind.
“Railway Interchange is the largest combined railway exhibition and technical conference in North America.” http://railwayinterchange.org
Sept. 17-21, 2017
Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance
Annual Conference & Exhibition
Yukon Convention Centre, Whitehorse, Yukon
“By exhibiting and actively participating at our event, you will learn about the changing rules and regulations that affect industry.”
http://www.cvsa.org/events/events_ list_2015.php
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Sept. 18-20, 2017
SAE 2017 Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress
Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare & Conference Center, Rosemont, Ill.
“ComVec 17 is the central forum for the community that develops vehicles and equipment spanning the on-highway, off-highway, agricultural, construction, industrial, military, and mining sectors.”
http://www.sae.org/events/cve/
Sept. 25-28, 2017
CeMAT Canada
International Centre, Mississauga, Ont.
“Connect with Canada’s high-skill, hightech manufacturing sector.”
“For well over two decades, the Truck Product Conference has provided the forum for gaining insights into truck chassis innovations and changes that impact the upfitting of multi-stage commercial vehicles.”
http://www.ntea.com/ truckproductconference
OCTOBER 2017
Oct. 3-5, 2017
International Construction & Utility Equipment Exposition
Kentucky Exposition Center, Louisville, Ky.
“ICUEE, also known as The Demo Expo, is the premier event for utility professionals and construction contractors to gain comprehensive insight into the latest technologies, innovations, insights, and trends affecting their industry.”
http://www.icuee.com/
Oct. 3-5, 2017
CanWEA Annual Conference & Exhibition
Palais de Congres, Montreal, Que.
“Don’t miss this rare opportunity to meet industry experts.”
http://windenergyevent.ca
Oct. 5-7, 2017
Service Specialists Association Convention
Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa, Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M. http://www.truckservice.org/
Oct. 9-11, 2017
Offshore Energy Exhibition & Conference
Amsterdam RAI Exhibition and Convention Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
“With the industry in transition OEEC offers offshore energy professionals the ideal meeting place to network, discuss and learn about the future of energy.” https://www.offshore-energy.biz
Oct. 17-19, 2017
Breakbulk Americas 2015
George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, Texas
“Exhibitors and sponsors include specialized ocean carriers, freight forwarders, ports/ terminals, logistics providers, ground transportation, heavy air, export packers, equipment companies and more.” http://www.breakbulk.com/events/ breakbulk-americas/americas-2016/
Oct. 19-21, 2017
Crane Industry Council of Australia Exhibition & Crane Display
Adelaide Convention Centre, Adelaide, South Australia “Elevate your thinking.” http://conference.cica.com.au/
Oct. 22-25, 2017
Associated Wire Rope Fabricators
Product Information Exhibition Hilton Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Minn. http://awrf.org/events/
Oct. 23-25, 2017
Canadian Transportation Equipment Association’s 54th Manufacturer’s Conference
Caesars Windsor Windsor, Ont.
“The Canadian Transportation Equipment Association’s Annual Conference and Trade Fair is an opportunity for trailer and vocational truck manufacturers, their dealers, suppliers and service providers to gather and network.” https://ctea.ca/
Oct. 24-25, 2017
NTEA Executive Leadership Summit
Chicago Marriott O’Hare Hotel, Chicago, Ill.
“Insights into the economic, regulatory and business trends affecting work truck industry companies.”
http://www.ntea.com/NTEA/Events/
Oct. 24-26, 2017
Automotive Testing Expo
North America
Suburban Collection Showplace, Novi, Mich.
“The resurging North American automotive industry is reflected in the fact that Automotive Testing Expo North America 2017 is set to be even bigger and better than in recent years.”
http://www.testing-expo.com/usa/index. php
Oct. 24-26, 2017
EquipmentSHIFT 2017
San Antonio Mariott Riverwalk
San Antonio, Texas
“This conference is for equipment management professionals who seek to succeed through performance, knowledge, and networking.”
http://www.aemp.org/page/SHIFT2017
Oct. 25-26, 2017
Municipal Equipment Expo Canada
Scotiabank Convention Centre, Niagara Falls, Ont.
“Canada’s only trade show serving the waste, recycling and public works markets.”
http://www.municipalexpo.ca
Oct. 25-28, 2017
Independent Distributors Association Convention & Trade Show
Grand Hyatt on the San Antonio River Walk, San Antonio, Texas
“The world’s largest networking event and conference for equipment parts distributors.”
“Where fleet managers and suppliers come to meet, learn, and deal.”
http://www.worktruckex.com
Nov. 6-9, 2017
Fabtech
McCormick Place, Chicago, Ill.
“The upcoming event is expected to cover more than 725,000 net square feet and anticipates over 40,000 attendees and 1,700 exhibiting companies.”
http://www.fabtechexpo.com/about
Nov. 8-9, 2017
Buildex Calgary
BMO Centre, Calgary, Alta.
“With more than 225 exhibits and over 35 educational seminars, Buildex attracts 4,000 attendees annually.”
http://www.buildexcalgary.com/
ICUEE, also known as The Demo Expo, returns to Louisville, Ky., in early October.
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