A Grove all-terrain crane has been helping to construct a federal GSA building on the small Pacific island of Guam.
The Grove GMK5275 was enlisted primarily to unload precast wall panels onto the job site before placing them around the perimeter of the building.
Yigo-based contractor, Smithbridge, said that the unit was the ideal choice for this particular job.
“We chose the GMK5275 for this project because of its reach and capacity,” commented Rick Schmidtke, the contractor’s crane and heavy equipment superintendent.
“It was equipped with 51 tonnes of counterweight, and we relied on the 19-tonne heavy jib to erect precast panels into vertical position,” he added.
The wall panels lifted by the unit ranged from 15 tonnes to 18 tonnes in weight. With its 220-tonne lifting capacity, the all-terrain lifter was able to move the loads without breaking a sweat. The precast building components measured 12m by 3m, and only had to be lifted a few feet off the ground in order to be placed.
The GMK5275 was also used to lift and place precast stairs into position for the building. These loads had to be elevated above the building’s structure. For this job, Schmidtke and his colleagues used the crane’s seven-section, 68m MEGAFORM boom with TWIN-LOCK pinning to achieve the necessary reach.
“We find the Grove all-terrain cranes to be efficient and reliable mobile cranes, especially for their price range,” he said.
“Also, the service support from Grove is extremely good,” Schmidtke concluded.
