Everyone takes pride in their neighborhoods. That includes the people who work at Central Rent-A-Crane, a member of the ALL Family of Companies, and HIS Constructors, Inc., two Greater Indianapolis businesses.
Most recently, they worked together on a job just a few hundred feet away from where they are based. Both are well-traveled entities, their services in demand across a wide region, so it was a homecoming to be on a job site and see their respective headquarters rising in the background.
Central, a crane rental company, and HIS, a general contractor with concentrations in environmental remediation, civil construction and industrial services markets, frequently collaborate on projects.
The Pleasant View Road bridge over I-74 is closed for an Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) reconstruction project. Both Central Rent-A-Crane and HIS Constructors regularly use the bridge to access their HQs. HIS Constructors won the bid for the job and selected its longtime collaborator, Central, to provide heavy lift equipment.
ALL Crane photo
"Obviously, it was a point of pride that we wanted to be the ones working on this job," said Todd Hyder, senior vice president of bridge-excavation-site utilities of HIS Constructors, Inc. "It's right in our backyard."
"Because you can literally see both of our headquarters from the job site, this was one we had to have," agreed Tim Welty, sales manager of Central Rent-A-Crane..
The location in Shelby County, a few miles southeast of Indianapolis, offers strategic highway access to Indy and the whole of Illinois to the west, and Cincinnati to the east.
"It's a prime location," said Welty.
Beam-setting took place across two nights in August. Central provided two all-terrain (AT) cranes, a 550-t. Grove GMK7550 and 275-t. Liebherr LTM 1230-5.1. The larger crane set up in the median of I-74 below, where it remained for both nights' operations. The Liebherr was on different ends of the overpass each night.
The Grove was configured with 147ft. of main boom, picking at a 60-ft. radius, with 264,500lbs. of counterweight. The Liebherr had 133ft. of main boom and radii between 60 and 70 ft., with 158,700lbs. of counterweight.
"We were fortunate to have a full shutdown of I-74 both nights," said Hyder. "INDOT guided traffic onto the off- and on-ramps to bypass the construction zone. It made beam-setting much easier because we didn't have to interrupt work around intermittent closures."
Beams were delivered on specially designed flatbeds each night and lined up along the highway. They drove in, one at a time, at the appropriate interval.
"Each beam was rigged with equalizers, and our cranes could pick straight up," said Joel Clapp, sales representative of Central Rent-A-Crane. "Operators swung in unison and set each beam on the end of the overpass and the bridge end bent."
Beams weighed approximately 87,000lbs. and measured 91ft. across. Four were set each night.
The Pleasant View bridge closed in the spring and will re-open later this fall. The closure impacts Central and HIS, as well as their other neighbors, but both believe it will be worth it in the end.
In particular, Central's frequent wide loads will be able to traverse the new bridge more easily, cutting down on some travel time.
"In the past, if we needed to head west into Indianapolis, we'd have to hop on 74 east, get to the next bridge down, then turn around," said Welty.
This is because the old bridge couldn't accommodate larger loads from flatbeds delivering higher-capacity cranes. The new structure corrects that.
HIS Contractors has its own fleet of cranes but turns to Central for equipment and expertise with heavier lifts.
"The advantage of working with Central is we know we'll have the right-sized cranes with plenty of capacity," said Hyder. "Our two teams have developed a comfort level by working together through the years."
The frequent partnership predates the two entities becoming neighbors. HIS Constructors and Central Rent-A-Crane moved to their new locations in 2023.
"HIS beat us here by a bit," said Welty. "I suppose it's like two old friends buying houses next to each other."
