GR's tallest tower crane yet now rising at River House site
A special setup crew from Texas will spend this week building the first 224 feet of a Pecco SK 355-25 tower crane.
At its full height of 468 feet, the Pecco will be the tallest crane ever to anchor into Grand Rapids bedrock.
Barring more below-freezing weather or a blizzard, the crew and a 365 ton Liebherr mobile crane with a hook reach of 280 feet will have the first phase of the Pecco completed by Friday.
Sometime in late August, construction will reach the 13th floor. That's when the Pecco will “make a jump” to 350 feet tall.
“It can’t free stand that high,” said Matt Larsen, project manager for Wolverine Construction, the construction company leading the project. “First, we tie it back into the structure of the building at the 13th floor, then jump it to the 350-foot height. We tie it in again at the 24th floor sometime in January 2008, and jump it to its full height of 468 feet.”
Although the Pecco needs the mobile crane to get it to its initial height of 224 feet, Larsen said that from that point on it can “build itself.” It’ll pick up each 20-foot section, set it in place, and lift its climbing structure to the height needed.
The Pecco is attached to a concrete pad that is anchored into the bedrock 20 feet below ground. The crane is assembled in 20-foot sections. A jib, a cab, and a counter jib will also be set in place atop the crane. The last piece of the initial assembly will be a boom that has 200 feet of horizontal hook reach.
At the farthest end of the boom, the Pecco will be able to lift 11,000 pounds. The load capacity increases as the boom works closer to the crane tower, maxing out at 27,600 pounds, or 11 Ford F-450 pickups.
Robert Grooters is the developer of the project. Brian Winkelmann of DTS + Winkelmann is the architect.
Source: Matt Larsen, Wolverine Construction; Dan Wert, Robert Grooters Development Company
flickr: grdadof3