Holy Shit is this thing huge!

Ddays

Ddays

Hooked
So the area I live in is a hotbed for shale fracking and Shell is constructing an ethane cracking facility that I pass every day. The plant is going to be huge. We haven't had anything this large since the steel industry boomed back in the 50's through the 70's. This is the site last week. Most cranes I've ever seen on a jobsite

Shell.jpg


Anyways, the real reason for the post is that we've all been hearing about a couple of gigantic cranes that are coming on-site to raise the towers and they just started building the largest one this week. I didn't get a pic of it yet because I was flabbergasted at how goddam big this thing is and it's not even fully built yet. Just to give you some idea, this quote is from the local newspaper:

"Shell spokesman Joe Minnitte said Thursday that the larger of the two cranes is nearly 675 feet tall with an attachment and can lift 3,500 tons at a time at its max capacity. The crane is so large that in order to weigh it down on the ground, 35 shipping containers — each 40 feet long — will be filled with sand to provide the counterweight "

Here's a vid of this thing in action. :shock: I'll post some pics as this thing is built.

 
That's bad ass. About time we get this country back to production rather than consumption.
 
That's pretty cool.

You know it's a big crane when it takes a crane to put together the crane that puts the big crane together.

Good to see some industrial work back in this country instead of being built overseas somewhere.
 
I work for a construction company that built the foundation for this same crane at CNRL Horizon Mine in Ft. McMurray Alberta. It took well over 300 truck loads to deliver to site and once it was up, standing next to the crane you realize that pictures don’t do justice to how big this thing really is.


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JMFK said:
I work for a construction company that built the foundation for this same crane at CNRL Horizon Mine in Ft. McMurray Alberta. It took well over 300 truck loads to deliver to site and once it was up, standing next to the crane you realize that pictures don’t do justice to how big this thing really is.


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That's awesome! I'm trying to figure out a way to get on the site but it's unlikely I'll be able to. Bechtel, the CM onsite, is really busting balls on this job, and understandably so.

What's involved with setting up one of these? How was the foundation constructed? I assume that the crane rotates on the ring it sits on. Is it connected any way or is it's weight enough that it doesn't move?

I'm a construction equipment junkie since my grandpap took me around to see different equipment when I was little. He operated a drag-line and dozer waaaaay back in the day.
 
That is awesome! Love to see this thing in action!


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wjtstudios said:
That is unreal! How long has the facility been under construction?
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Just over a year or so. It's amazing how much shit gets done when dealing with private bid jobs and $$ vs. public bid jobs and low bidder shit. :yup:
This complex is right on I-376 about 30 miles or so outside of Pittsburgh. They re-did an entire interstate interchange to acommodate the increased traffic and oversized truck shipments in about 6 months. :crazyeyes:

Coop said:
That is awesome! Love to see this thing in action!
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I'm gonna post some progress pics as this goes up. Coming home past it the damn sun was shining directly at us so the pics were awful.
 
Ddays said:
That's awesome! I'm trying to figure out a way to get on the site but it's unlikely I'll be able to. Bechtel, the CM onsite, is really busting balls on this job, and understandably so.

What's involved with setting up one of these? How was the foundation constructed? I assume that the crane rotates on the ring it sits on. Is it connected any way or is it's weight enough that it doesn't move?

I'm a construction equipment junkie since my grandpap took me around to see different equipment when I was little. He operated a drag-line and dozer waaaaay back in the day.
Click to expand...

I was a part of building the new Atlanta Falcons stadium. To construct the roof, they brought out a brand new crane from Manitowak? Hope I spelled that right, anyway at the time it was the 2nd largest crane in the world. It took over a month to set it up and in place. As far as the ground goes, they bring in giant crane pads. Some are basically full length trees , the rest is all steel plates. It is truly amazing to see something like this being put together not to mention at what it can actually pick up.


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Ddays said:
Just over a year or so. It's amazing how much shit gets done when dealing with private bid jobs and $$ vs. public bid jobs and low bidder shit. :yup:
This complex is right on I-376 about 30 miles or so outside of Pittsburgh. They re-did an entire interstate interchange to acommodate the increased traffic and oversized truck shipments in about 6 months. :crazyeyes:



I'm gonna post some progress pics as this goes up. Coming home past it the damn sun was shining directly at us so the pics were awful.
Click to expand...

The biggest crane lift I ever saw was two huge 350 ton cranes do a single lift together, of a huge 200 ton piece of equipment to the top of a new 8 or 10 story building. I can’t visualize a 3500 ton crane!
I imagine you just get your crane catalog out and order one, right?


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Ddays said:
Just over a year or so. It's amazing how much shit gets done when dealing with private bid jobs and $$ vs. public bid jobs and low bidder shit. :yup:
This complex is right on I-376 about 30 miles or so outside of Pittsburgh. They re-did an entire interstate interchange to acommodate the increased traffic and oversized truck shipments in about 6 months. :crazyeyes:



I'm gonna post some progress pics as this goes up. Coming home past it the damn sun was shining directly at us so the pics were awful.
Click to expand...

Yes people here actually realize time is money. Gov bid jobs are terrible, so much waste of both. I can't wait to see what CA's housing market does if they pass the prevailing wage law for commercial and residential construction...:crazyeyes:
 
Ddays said:
That's awesome! I'm trying to figure out a way to get on the site but it's unlikely I'll be able to. Bechtel, the CM onsite, is really busting balls on this job, and understandably so.

What's involved with setting up one of these? How was the foundation constructed? I assume that the crane rotates on the ring it sits on. Is it connected any way or is it's weight enough that it doesn't move?

I'm a construction equipment junkie since my grandpap took me around to see different equipment when I was little. He operated a drag-line and dozer waaaaay back in the day.
Click to expand...

Yeah I’m familiar with certain companies being very protective of their job sites. That’s why I don’t have any pictures of the crane because taking pictures was strictly prohibited by the sites owner.

As far as what goes into setting up this crane, my company built a compacted gravel base. If memory serves me we excavated 10ft of existing soil and replaced with crushed rock. Then Mammoet came in and built the ring. And yes the crane rotated on the ring and it isn’t connected to the ground. It basically is just a big spread footing. From there Mammoet just assembles the crane components with an army of smaller cranes. I think they had like 12 200ton and smaller cranes putting the big one together.

If your interested in another one of Manitowoc’s newer cranes look into the MLC650. I’ve been doing a lot of lift engineering for a pair of them my company has on a bridge project in Montreal. I used them to pick a 400ton section of that bridge.


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I was lucky enough to get a tour at Manitowoc Crane years ago. They are just an hour up the road from me. The crane parts are big and they have lots of big machines to make those parts.
 
kellyk said:
I was a part of building the new Atlanta Falcons stadium. To construct the roof, they brought out a brand new crane from Manitowak? Hope I spelled that right, anyway at the time it was the 2nd largest crane in the world. It took over a month to set it up and in place. As far as the ground goes, they bring in giant crane pads. Some are basically full length trees , the rest is all steel plates. It is truly amazing to see something like this being put together not to mention at what it can actually pick up.
Click to expand...

That's pretty cool! Sometimes I wish I had gotten involved on the construction side of this industry but then Winter comes and I'm like, nah.

Coop said:
The biggest crane lift I ever saw was two huge 350 ton cranes do a single lift together, of a huge 200 ton piece of equipment to the top of a new 8 or 10 story building. I can’t visualize a 3500 ton crane!
I imagine you just get your crane catalog out and order one, right?
Click to expand...

And your big fat checkbook! ;)

jesse3638 said:
Yes people here actually realize time is money. Gov bid jobs are terrible, so much waste of both. I can't wait to see what CA's housing market does if they pass the prevailing wage law for commercial and residential construction...:crazyeyes:
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Yikes! Look out!

JMFK said:
Yeah I’m familiar with certain companies being very protective of their job sites. That’s why I don’t have any pictures of the crane because taking pictures was strictly prohibited by the sites owner.

As far as what goes into setting up this crane, my company built a compacted gravel base. If memory serves me we excavated 10ft of existing soil and replaced with crushed rock. Then Mammoet came in and built the ring. And yes the crane rotated on the ring and it isn’t connected to the ground. It basically is just a big spread footing. From there Mammoet just assembles the crane components with an army of smaller cranes. I think they had like 12 200ton and smaller cranes putting the big one together.

If your interested in another one of Manitowoc’s newer cranes look into the MLC650. I’ve been doing a lot of lift engineering for a pair of them my company has on a bridge project in Montreal. I used them to pick a 400ton section of that bridge.
Click to expand...

Thats really interesting - thanks for the info. Heavy industry is really facsinating.

sipafz said:
I was lucky enough to get a tour at Manitowoc Crane years ago. They are just an hour up the road from me. The crane parts are big and they have lots of big machines to make those parts.
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Y'know, wouldn't that be an awesome business idea? Factory tours like that that a travel agent sets up? :hmm:

JKbrick said:
So interesting, how would you build such a big crane if there isn’t one bigger to lift the pieces into place?
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Use more than one at a time I think. The individual pieces of this thing are massive. I can't wait to see this thing up!
 
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