PSA: That new tower crane setup at the Riverbend job site in Nashville has me scratching my head

I drove past the Riverbend development on my way to a job last Thursday and noticed they got a new tower crane up, but the guy running it was barely lifting anything over 5 tons. The crane itself looks like it could handle double that easy. Now I'm wondering if it's a safety call because of the tight layout or if the operator just isn't pushing it. My old foreman used to say you gotta work the crane to its limit or you're wasting diesel, but I've also seen guys get burned for getting too aggressive near buildings. What's the general feeling on this? Do you run your cranes at 80 percent capacity or do you throttle back when the site gets crowded?

2 comments

2 Comments

miamitchell23d ago

Wait, is that the site right off the interstate by the old grain silos? I got a buddy who used to run crane dispatch for a company that subbed out there a few years back. He told me this one time they had a brand new Liebherr on site, total beast, but the site manager made them keep it at 60 percent for the first two weeks because the ground was still settling from a bad rain season. He said they lost almost a whole day once because they tried to lift a 7 ton beam and the crane started leaning like it was in a windstorm. So my guess is it's probably a safety call, not the operator being lazy. Better safe than sorry when you're working that close to those new apartment buildings.

sagew5023d ago

Wait, do cranes get performance anxiety like that too...? I'd probably be the one operating it and leaning back in my chair trying to compensate for the tilt.