Tadano All-Terrain Crane Erects City's Tallest Sculpture

Enlarge Image
Wyatt's Tadano ATF160 G-5 and a Genie S-120 boom lift are used to set "Open Road."

June 6, 2007 • North of Denver at the eastern foothills of the Rockies, Wyatt Crane & Rigging Co., Loveland, Colo., is one recent recipient of Houston, Texas-based Tadano

America

's ATF160G-5 all-terrain cranes. Since Wyatt Crane took delivery of the 200-ton AT crane last November, it has been used to erect arch structures, water tanks, and asphalt plant conveyors.

In February, the ATF160 G-5 was commissioned to set the all-steel “Open Road” sculpture, designed by Jeffrey Hall of Denver, Colo., in the middle of a roundabout at the 3,000-acre Motorplex at Centerra auto mall in Loveland. Wyatt Crane was hired by DaVinci Sign Systems, Inc., Windsor, Colo., to set the tallest sculpture in the city.

According to Mark Foster, vice president and co-owner of DaVinci Sign Systems, the single sculpture was made of two side-by-side pieces that each weighed 26,000 pounds and were 60 feet tall. The two pieces measured 8'x3' at the base, narrowed to about 16 inches in the middle of the sculpture, and then bowed out to about 5 feet at the top, Foster said. Because of where the crane had to be set up, Wyatt said that the company decided to use the Tadano ATF160 G-5 because of its rear steering feature, which facilitated access to the roundabout.

At the beginning of the project, Foster said Wyatt brought in three cranes • two to lift the sculpture onto the trailer and the Tadano ATF160 G-5 to remove the sculpture from the trailer at the Motorplex and set it up. The challenge with this project was lining up the two plates at the bottom of each base with 80 J-bolts • 40 on each piece.

“The major factor in lifting something of this unusual design is the center of gravity,” Wyatt said. “We utilized a rolling block system to permit us to get the CG before we could lift each piece into place.” Foster said the lift took “a good eight hours,” but the project “went off without a hitch.”