Crews Maintain AZ Power Plant With Link-Belt RTC-8050

Sat June 29, 2002
Crane Equipment Guide

Salt River Project (SRP), established in 1903, is the nation’s first multipurpose reclamation project authorized under the National Reclamation Act. Today, SRP is the country’s third largest public power utility, providing power to customers throughout a 2,900-sq.-mi. territory in Central Arizona. The SRP delivers low cost, reliable water and electrical power. It has more than 4,000 employees and serves more than 746,000 customers.

The SRP Agua Fria facility, is located north of Phoenix. Simply put, it involves using natural gas to convert water to steam, which rotates the turbines that produce electricity. The principal pieces of machinery required to do this are a boiler and a steam turbine generator. A condenser located under the turbine condenses the steam back to water. The water then passes through a series of feedwater heaters. A boiler feedwater pump returns the water back to the boiler and the cycle repeats itself.

At any stage of this process, something could break down, which can mean a loss of power and water to the 746,000 customers. That’s when the Link-Belt crane comes in handy.

Bruce Reynolds, crane operator, said that the RTC-8050 Series II can handle a majority of its maintenance and repair requirements. The crane is called on to do many tasks. “About the last thing we need to worry about is the capability of the crane. We don’t have that concern with our new Link-Belt RTC-8050. We know what our machine can do. That’s why we bought it,” Reynolds said.

The operator also appreciates the unit’s safety features.

“Safety is the most important consideration of everything we do. The RTC-8050 meets all of our safety requirements,” Reynolds said. “It’s the Cadillac of cranes. Already we have six men here certified to operate the crane. Visibility from the cab is excellent. Another feature that I like about the new Link-Belt crane is its ability to crab steer. This allows me to put the crane in closer to the work, which increases its lifting capacity by reducing the working radius. The RTC-8050 also has all-wheel drive. Combine these two features and we get a machine that can go almost anywhere, and do anything that we need to do, when we need to do it.”

Link-Belt Construction Equipment Company, with headquarters in Lexington, KY, is a leader in the design and manufacture of telescopic boom and lattice boom cranes for the construction industry worldwide.

For more information, call 606/263-5200.