Mike Hansen once thought that by adding 30 tons to a crane, it would lose a great deal of mobility. Now he thinks otherwise.
Hansen, president of Hansen Construction, has been in the bridge-building business for approximately eight years. After graduating from the University of New Hampshire with an engineering degree, he started building the smallest bridges conceivable. Today, his company has been growing to tackle increasingly larger projects.
Now, Hansen’s company can handle all of the necessary jobs (except for paving) at a site without subcontracting. The company can handle its own concrete work, as well as crane and pile work. It also can build and install its own temporary bridge when necessary at a site.
As a company that likes to do as much of its own work as possible, Hansen Construction has its share of equipment. In addition to an assortment of excavators, loaders and dump trucks used for excavation and moving materials, the company owns two cranes: a Terex RT550 55-ton (49.9 t) rough-terrain crane and a newly purchased Link-Belt 218HSL 110-ton (99.8 t) crawler crane.
When Hansen was in the market for a crawler crane, the people at the Wood’s CRW Corp. branch in Worcester, MA, stepped up to fill his needs.
“We knew that we wanted to make the move to a crawler crane. The ability to be that mobile that quickly on our job site was driving our purchase,” said Hansen.
Hansen was originally looking for an 80-ton (72.6 t) crane, because he didn’t feel a larger crane would be mobile enough. A meeting with factory representatives from Link-Belt during a trip to ConExpo this year had him seeing things differently.
“When the representatives from Link-Belt demonstrated to us just how mobile the Link-Belt 218HSL crane was and just how easy to transport the crane would be, we were able to justify moving up to a 110-ton crane,” said Hansen.
The Link-Belt 218HSL is engineered so that its operators can break it down and load it on a transport at a 12 ft. (3.7 m) width. They can do all this without removing the undercarriage or needing a second crane to load counterweights onto the trailer.
The 218’s pancake-style counterweights can be lowered hydraulically to the ground. A 20-ft. (6.1 m) base boom section is permanently installed on the crane. This 20 ft. of boom, which is equipped with Self Assembly Cylinder, is used to load the counterweights onto the trailer. This allows the crane to be loaded without the assistance of another crane.
Another important feature of the Link-Belt 218HSL is its load hoist drums. Power flow is directed through a semi-outboard mounted wet-style multi-disc brake. The brake is mounted on the output side of the planetary, which greatly reduces drag associated with most wet-style brakes when they are in free-fall mode.
The free-fall mode is designed to prevent load lowering even if the free-fall switch is accidentally activated. The machine’s rated capacity limiter system is a boom hoist load cell system.
Hansen’s purchase of the Link-Belt 218HSL was influenced greatly by the representatives of Wood’s CRW.
“We had never owned or operated a crawler crane before. I needed to know that the crane would be effective with our type of bridge construction and that my employees would be comfortable operating it,” said Hansen.
The crane’s ability to pick up and carry loads while moving has saved Hansen tremendous amounts of time and money. In addition to the hundreds of dollars a day the company saves with the new crane’s abilities on the job site, it also is saving Hansen $50,000 in rental fees from crane services.
Hansen Construction’s new crawler crane went into service for the first time at the company’s current job, a $500,000 bridge located on West Street in Swanzey, NH. The project started May 15, 2005, and is scheduled for completion by August 1. Hansen is currently using the crane for pile installation. The crane will drive seven piles on each side of the bridge.
This municipal bridge is being funded by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation. In New Hampshire, the state picks up 80 percent of the cost of the bridge while the town covers the remaining 20 percent and bears the responsibility of future maintenance.
For more information, call 802/658-1700 or visit www.woodscrw.com. CEG
Today's top stories
