3D Lift Plan Helps ALL Crane of Cleveland in Blind Lift

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3D LiftPlan helps on ALL Crane of Cleveland blind lift.

June 13, 2011 — There’s a lot to consider when you’re preparing to lift and place 75 segments of precast concrete weighing over 24,000 pounds each on the blind side of a building on a narrow site. A successful up-and-over lift requires precise planning: Which crane to use? How to configure the crane? How to overcome the site’s tight conditions? How to determine the perfect placement of the crane for maximum lift efficiency? How to keep down the cost? These were the considerations for Marty LaCava, of ALL Erection & Crane Rental Corp., Cleveland, Ohio, when he helped plan the precast lifts at the new Cleveland Clinic Laboratories building, a $75 million, 136,000-square-foot medical testing laboratory on the main campus of the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic.

The side of the building on which the crane was erected is 275 feet long, and the lift radius was just over 142 feet. The precast segments needed to be placed at different points on the other side, and LaCava wanted to move the crane as little as possible along the lift side of the building for cost and efficiency reasons. ALL’s 3D Lift Plan lift simulation and planning software from A1A Software, Fernandina Beach, Fla., was the key to designing a perfect lift plan in which the crane could be built to be moved only once.

The 3D Lift Plan also proved invaluable in selecting the crane and planning for the site conditions. After reviewing the 3D analysis based on vital information from the job site, ALL decided to go with a Grove GMK6350 350-ton hydraulic all-terrain crane with a telescoping boom set at 87 feet, 148 feet of luffing jib, and 220,400 pounds of counterweight. The crane was set up with a mere 5 feet of clearance from the building. “The 3D software showed us the best way to build the crane in a limited space only 200 feet long,” says LaCava.

“With the right hydraulic crane, the right amount of jib, and the precision allowed by the 3D Lift Plan, we were able to complete all the lifts moving the crane only once,” LaCava adds. “That significantly increased cost effectiveness. Six weeks worth of up-and-over lifts were executed without a hitch.”