41
LIFTING
SITE REPORT
OCTOBER 2014
ACT
Bigge Crane&Rigging used
its LR1300 SX to lift a
generator to a height of
300 feet on a sloped,
narrow street in the financial
district of San Francisco.
challenge tobothassemble andoperate
onnarrow, sloped streets. Plus, therewas
a tightwindowof time toaccomplish the
job.
The ageof thebuilding further
complicated things. Bigge’s engineering
teamhad toworkwith sketchesof the
building thatweremore than75years
old todetermine thebest place toput the
generatoronce theygot it on topof the
building. Three crewsweredispatched to
handle theproject.
The craneof choicewas aLiebherr
LR1300SX.With the assistanceof the
SanFranciscoPoliceDepartment, three
blocksofHawthorneStreetwere shut
downonaFriday eveningwhile the first
crew erected the crawler.An80-ton rough
terrain crane anda50-ton rough terrain
cranewereused toassemble thehuge
crane. The80-tonRTput the treads and
counterweight on the cranewhile the
50-ton capacityRT laidout andassembled
theboomand jib.
Once theLR1300was assembled,which
tooknearly12hours, the slopeof the
streetwas leveledwith cranemats, and the
cranewas thenwalked40 feet to the site
of the lift. The cranepicked thegenerator
upand lifted it overoneofficebuilding to
the roof of theoneonwhich itwouldbe
placed.
Bigge’s second crewworkedall day
Saturdayperforming the lift. The third
crewbrokedown the crane in less than
eight hours,working through thenight
Saturday,whichallowed the streets
to reopenaheadof scheduleSunday
morning.
“AtBiggewehave a saying ‘thedifficult
wedo immediately, the impossible takes
a little longer,’” said JoeNelms, vice
president, sales andmarketing.
■
W
henamechanical and
electrical contractorneeded
a26-tongenerator lifted
more than300 feet, inonepiece, at radius,
ona slopedandbusySanFrancisco street,
BiggeCrane&Riggingwas the company
they called toperform the job. Biggehas
beenperforming jobs in theSanFrancisco
region for almost 100years, and their team
knows the challengesofworking in this
hillyanddenselypopulated city.
Thebiggest concernswere that that the
generatorhad tobe lifted inonepiece, and
thebuildingwas located in thebusySouth
ofMarket neighborhood.
Becauseof the requirementsof the job,
thebest crane tomake that liftwouldbe a
large capacity crawler,which isquite the
Generator
lift caper
Bigge Crane &Rigging
dispatched three crews to rig
the crane, make the lift and
then break down the crane.
It took about 12 hours to assemble the
crawler, level the streetwith cranemats, and
thenwalk the crawler towhere the generator
could be picked up, lifted and placed.
