All Sunshine Renovates Citrus Bowl

Enlarge Image 3D Lift Plan for Citrus Bowl

June 11, 2014 - Opened in 1936 as a public works project under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration, the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando had aged considerably over the years. Now the stadium is receiving $200 million in renovations that include the removal of a suspended walkway, in which ALL Sunshine Crane Rental Corp., a member of the ALL Family of Companies, played a major role.

 

ALL Sunshine was hired by Abatement Central, a subcontractor for Independence Demolition of Independence, Ohio. ALL Sunshine and Independence worked directly together to remove the 43-ft. long, 23,000-lb. suspended walkway positioned in the center of post-tensioned concrete supports, which had to remain undamaged. In addition, numerous 45-ft., 30,000-lb. precast panels from the outside of the upper section of the stadium were to be lifted down and replaced.

 

ALL Sunshine moved in with a 100-ton Liebherr LTM 1100-4.2 all-terrain crane. Unfortunately, to remove the walkway, the crane faced an opening only 29'x31'. Due to the difficulty of the lift, Dave Hall, project coordinator at ALL Sunshine, utilized ALL’s 3D Lift Plan software to help plan the job. 3D Lift Plan calculated that the walkway could be removed with the crane’s telescoping boom operating at 74.2 ft.with 37,900 lbs. of counterweight, enabling the crane to handle a 15,000-lb. load at only 60% of its capacity. The sling tension was 11,698 lbs.

 

Because the walkway could not be lowered without potential damage to the concrete supports, it was rigged with custom cables for slinging. Then slow swinging and telescoping enabled the removal of the walkway.

 

For taking down the precast panels, 3D Lift Plan demonstrated that the telescopic boom needed to extend 110.9 ft., with the same 37,900-lb.  counterweight as for the walkway, operating at merely 61% of capacity.

 

“The operator did a flawless job,” says Hall. “This was a very tough job, but he did us proud. I’m glad we were able to perform so well on a project that means a lot to the city.”

 

The Liebherr LTM 1100-4.2 crane was power and flexible enough to handle both jobs, saving time and allowing the general contractor to move on to the next task.

 

“It was just such a tight space,” says John Carroll of Independence Demolition. “We ran through a few different scenarios, and then we came up with an idea we thought would work. The 3D Lift Plan showed us it could be done. The operator from ALL Sunshine brought that walkway out beautifully. People said we couldn’t succeed, but we did.”

 

The reconstructed 65,000-seat Citrus Bowl will feature a rebuilt lower bowl, a new digital video scoreboard, more specialized seating options, and a 10,000-sq.-ft. “party deck.” The city hopes to host a future Super Bowl once the renovations are complete.