By Casey C. Smith
A Link-Belt 250-ton 298 HSL lattice crawler crane has logged nearly 12,000 hours at the East Side Access jobsite located in the Queens borough of New York City. The project will connect four tunnels running under the East River from Harold Interlocking in Queens, New York, west, to a new terminal located directly below the existing Grand Central Station in Manhattan.
CONTROL OVER LOADS
“While excavation in the launch shaft took place, the material and dump body averaged about 50,000 pounds as we threaded the load through the struts. You have to understand, we have three levels of struts placed 15 feet apart for trench support at this location. Through the struts, we lowered a 100-ton truck crane, a PC600 large excavator, and 45-ton rough terrain with the 298,” says Kevin Dillon, operator engineer for G.T.F., a joint venture company created for the project. “Believe me, it was tricky, but the 298 worked well. In that type of situation, you want control over the loads, and that is what we had.”
In order to bore the four tunnels, a German built Herrenknecht 22 foot, 6 inch diameter slurry tunnel boring machine worked around the clock, boring more than 11,000 feet in total for each of the four tunnels. The 298 has kept the two Herrenknechts running as well, supplying the two boring machines as they work during three, 8-hour shifts for 7 straight months of non-stop boring. The boring units could not be stopped once boring commenced, so a non-stop schedule was required—which led to the 12,000 hours of logged time over a 22-month period.
EXTREME RELIABILITY
The Link-Belt 298 proved to be a very reliable rig during its constant use at the jobsite. The crane lowers ventilation tubing, additional tracks for the Herrenknecht, precast liner segments, and electrical pipelines as much as 70 feet below ground. Some of the largest picks required of the 298 HSL came at the conclusion of the tunnel boring process when 110,000-pound lifts were required. Using a five-part line, the crew and operator pulled out the 110,000-pound trailing gear and a 98,000-pound lift of duct work that swung 230 degrees for loading once at ground level.
The crew replaced the 28 millimeter auxiliary hoist line at 10,000 hours as a preventive measure. The crane was inspected every 3 months by the crew and also by the New York City Department of Buildings. The three companies that compose G.T.F. are Granite Construction of Watsonville, California; Traylor Brothers of Evansville, Indiana; and Frontier-Kemper also of Evansville, Indiana. The three companies were contracted to build the $730 million Queens Bored Tunnels project with primary access from the busy, Harold Interlocking Yard. According to Ron Albers, project equipment manager, “We expect to use the 298 for 6 months before going to another jobsite.” ■
For More Information:
Link-Belt Construction Equipment Company, with headquarters in Lexington, Kentucky, is a leader in the design and manufacture of telescopic boom and lattice boom cranes for the construction industry worldwide. For more information and complete crane specifications, visit www.linkbelt.com.
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Modern Contractor Solutions, July 2013
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