Florida Hospital Built with Link-Belt Luffers

Fri November 29, 2019
Link-Belt Cranes

DC Crane Service of West Palm Beach, Fla., has been a valued Link-Belt customer for 26 years. The company's founders, Dan Connor and his wife, Janet, have achieved great success renting their six 110-ton capacity 218 series of cranes with luffing attachments all over southern Florida, including a 2019 110-ton (99.8-t) 218 HSL.

"The mobility of crawler cranes is a huge factor in reducing the number of stationary tower cranes," said Dan Connor. "The luffing configuration on our 218s gives us an advantage reaching out with rebar cages and forms for columns, decks, and walls during construction."

A current project in Doral, Fla., has four of DC Crane's 218 cranes, all in luffing configuration for construction of Jackson Health System's new Medical Center. The 27-acre campus directly across Palmetto Expressway from Miami International Airport will be home of a 100-bed, 275,000 sq. ft. acute care hospital. Proximity to the airport led to the use of crawler cranes with luffing boom instead of seven or eight fixed tower cranes to stay below Federal Aviation Association flight path restrictions.

"The west wing of the building is the tallest at 98 feet to the top. We use 100 feet of main boom and 80 feet of luffing jib for the crane on that corner of the project," Connor said.

Another three Link-Belt 218 crawler cranes positioned on either side of the "Y" shaped 350 ft. (106.6 m) long building are fitted with 80 ft. (24.3 m) of main boom and 100 ft. (30.4 m) of luffing jib to place building materials up to six stories high.

The third wing, housing a four-floor medical office building, keeps a 218 busy flying 15 ft. (4.5 m) wide by 25 ft. (7.6 m) long floor forms that weight up to 5,000 lbs. (2,267 kg). The crane operator slides the panel out from under the cured concrete floor and hoists it to the floor above it with the support of a large metal c-bracket.

Crane Performance

The Connors feel fortunate to have the operators they employ. Four crewmembers on site for DC Crane — Terry West, Charlie Buckland, John (JJ) Johnson and Ramon Marfil — combine for more than 75 years of service at DC Crane.

"I rely on the operators heavily to let me know when their machines require service. My operators are very good and take pride in their machines, but I have made it a part of their job to keep them maintained. It's not just in appearance, it's the everyday maintenance that includes greasing, changing the oil, and checking wear points. As I said, I am fanatical about it," Connor said.

The oldest crane on site is a 2001 LS-218H II with more than 32,400 hours on it. The next oldest crane has about 24,000 hours of use, and the youngest has more than 14,628 hours. Connor estimated that his cranes put on 1,600 to 1,800 hours of use each year, since being purchased.

"We have also been lucky enough to get in on the ground floor on using a tower attachment for the Link-Belt 218s. The 218 rig is fairly remarkable for the work that they will do, for no bigger than what those machines are size-wise," Connor said.

For more information, visit www.linkbelt.com.