AUSTIN | Colorado Tower | 397 FEET | 29 FLOORS | Complete - Page 9

KevinFromTexas · #**161** Posted **Jun 21, 2013, 5:14 AM**

I wonder if they'll keep the Colorado Street sidewalk open during construction. If so, that's going to be quite a view of the tower crane. Look how close it is to the sidewalk.

ivanwolf · #**162** Posted **Jun 21, 2013, 7:03 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

I wonder if they'll keep the Colorado Street sidewalk open during construction. If so, that's going to be quite a view of the tower crane. Look how close it is to the sidewalk.

What gets me is that yes its close and it will be cool to look up, but they just finished this sidewalk and now its in danger of being damaged by the construction. I know the developer will likely have to fix the damage but geez it was just poured a few months ago.

BuildingATX · #**163** Posted **Jul 6, 2013, 10:57 PM**

Tower crane is going up this weekend:

LoneStarMike · #**164** Posted **Jul 7, 2013, 5:43 AM**

July 5, 2013

KevinFromTexas · #**165** Posted **Jul 7, 2013, 8:05 AM**

^Great shots. Those last two are crane porn.

Crane construction from July 5 and 6.

Stringing the suspension cables for the boom.

Attaching the cables.

Suspension cables attached.

Can you guess what this piece is?

It's the car the hook rides on.

The boom waiting to go up.

They got my hopes up when they started hooking it up, but they were only lifting it over the fence for the night.

After I saw this I knew they were done for the day.

the Genral · #**166** Posted **Jul 8, 2013, 4:00 AM**

Crane porn Kevin? What's the most sensitive part of your body when you are watching porn at home? Your ears...

cvalkan · #**167** Posted **Jul 10, 2013, 2:47 AM**

Is the extension on the mobile crane just guyed? There doesn't seem to be any structural strength between the telescoping part and the framework extension (apologies for the inaccurate terminology).

KevinFromTexas · #**168** Posted **Jul 10, 2013, 3:39 AM**

The mobile crane of course has its steel cable which is what the hook is suspended from. That runs from a spool on the cab/base with a motor and up the boom over a pulley connected to the hook.

The backside of the boom has those two "wings". Attached to them are two cables that are connected to the boom with a pulley. Those cables go down to the base of the crane with another motorized pulley. So when the crane is lifting a load, that motorized pulley pulls those cables taught. The tension keeps the load balanced so that it doesn't tip too much in one direction. The base/cab/truck of the crane also has outriggers giving it a larger platform for more stability.

The telescoping part of the boom is "telescoped" or shortened for transport. The piston part of the crane boom can be shortened to the length of the crane truck so that the crane be driven on public streets. The lattice part of the crane on the very end is removed and transported on a flatbed truck. It assembles pretty much the same way a tower crane does using huge steel pins to keep both pieces together. The lattice section is attached using another mobile crane.

Some of these mobile cranes are able to lift up to 130 tons. Even when they're lifting tower crane pieces like this, they're likely only lifting a fraction of what they can lift. Most city buses for instance weigh between 11 and 14 tons.

If you check out the JW Marriott construction cam, you can see the construction/deconstruction of the mobile crane. They took it apart on July 7.

http://oxblue.com/open/tournee/jwmarriottaustin

lzppjb · #**169** Posted **Jul 25, 2013, 12:18 PM**

The Marriott cam shows this tower is officially starting to rise. I see 6 column forms out there.

corvairkeith · #**170** Posted **Jul 25, 2013, 3:11 PM**

I'm pretty sure it's just the rebar for the columns that's up. I don't think any have been poured yet. I took this photo last week and it looks pretty much like what I see on the Marriott cam.

lzppjb · #**171** Posted **Jul 25, 2013, 3:45 PM**

Yeah, that's what I saw when I posted.

KevinFromTexas · #**172** Posted **Jul 27, 2013, 6:35 PM**

First column is up! And some more foundation work. You can see it via the JW Marriott construction cam on the left side of the image.

http://oxblue.com/open/tournee/jwmarriottaustin

corvairkeith · #**173** Posted **Sep 22, 2013, 4:56 PM**

From today.

The ATX · #**174** Posted **Sep 25, 2013, 9:57 PM**

This seems to be progressing fairly quickly now as seen from the JW Marriott webcam.

the Genral · #**175** Posted **Sep 25, 2013, 10:28 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hill Country

This seems to be progressing fairly quickly now as seen from the JW Marriott webcam.

Just a sidebar...the weather on the 20th was chronicled nicely from that webcam.

LoneStarMike · #**176** Posted **Oct 13, 2013, 4:25 AM**

Friday October 11, 2013

corvairkeith · #**177** Posted **Oct 24, 2013, 9:02 PM**

Today 10/24/2013

KevinFromTexas · #**178** Posted **Nov 11, 2013, 4:55 AM**

the Genral · #**179** Posted **Nov 11, 2013, 6:00 AM**

Am I seeing this correct? I thought from the original drawing that the long sides were north to south. This looks like they are east to west, especially in the next to last photo. If you look at the small rendering at the top of this thread, it looks like its turned 90 degrees now. So is it the narrow or long side that faces Congress? And is the orientation in the rendering above correct?

zedaref · #**180** Posted **Nov 11, 2013, 6:33 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by the Genral

Am I seeing this correct? I thought from the original drawing that the long sides were north to south. This looks like they are east to west, especially in the next to last photo. If you look at the small rendering at the top of this thread, it looks like its turned 90 degrees now. So is it the narrow or long side that faces Congress? And is the orientation in the rendering above correct?

The rendering is correct. I think the perspective is just playing games with your eyes. The side facing Colorado and the alley is 185'-5" while the 3rd street side is 161'-9".