A LIEBHERR LR 1300 Crane Pays a Visit to the Construction Site

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At the End of the Day, a Liebherr LR 1300 Crane Looms Tall Over the Construction Pit

Early in the morning on August 14, 2017,  a semi truck transporting a Liebherr LR 1300 Crane on a lowboy trailer slowly pulled up to the gate of the construction site. There was a lot of excitement because up to that time this crane would be the largest and tallest to date: over fourteen stories tall. I was informed that this crane was considered a “TOY” compared to the two Liebherr LR 1750s that were slated to be erected on site later in the year. This crane, unlike any we had seen on site, was so large, the two tracks were transported on two separate flatbeds. What follows in this post is a digital transformation of this large crawler crane transported in many parts which will, by the end of the day with the help of a smaller crane, evolve into a tall piece of machinery that will be used to whisk the heavy(3,500 – 4,500 lbs) steel “hashtag” isolators to their predetermined pads some three-stories down in the pit.

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The Liebherr Gets its Tracks

The Liebherr LR 1300 crane arrived in pieces on a number of flatbed trucks: so many that the city would not let the trucks line up on the street. Three or four trucks were staged on site to be offloaded. The smaller mobile crane to be used to offload the Liebherr’s parts positioned itself on the north side of the site where the crane would be assembled. First to be offloaded were the tracks. This process was very interesting and is the feature of this video.

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The Liebherr LR 1300 Tracks

The tracks or flat track shoes are 31 ft 8 in long; 4 ft 8 in wide, and 4 ft 10 in tall. Each track weighs 49,493 LBS.

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The track width of a Liebherr LR 1300 dwarfs the water bottle lying on one of the treads.

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The operator is repositioning the crane to allow for the counter weights to be hoisted onto the flatbed trucks.

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Arranging the Pieces

A fast-forward video showing the Liebherr LR 1300 crane operators offloading the counterweights onto the crane’s deck, offloading the boom sections and arranging them so that the pieces can be assembled in a safe and orderly manner.

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Stacking the Counterweights

Before the sections are assembled onto the carriage, the counterweights must be lifted into place. The LR 1300 has a counterweight capacity of up to 330-tons.

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Clearing the Deck Down in the Pit

As the crane operators ready the crane sections, the ironworkers down in the pit are clearing each base location of all debris and laying out the specified bolts and shims, which will be used to anchor each isolator base to the foundation pad.

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Putting the Pieces Together

After arranging the pieces, the crane operators began to erect the boom pieces.

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Relocating From the North to the South Side of the Site

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On August 30, 2017, the crane operators disassembled the large boom sections from the Liebherr LR 1300 cranes carriage and loaded the sections onto flatbed trucks to relocate the crane from the north side of the pit to the south side. This video shows the crane as it begins its journey screeching, creaking and popping until it teetered off the wooden mats to make its way slowly to its new location. While the crane lumbered, screeched and ground its way to the new location, a crew was at the new site laying the wooden platform mats.