Get FinancingLink-Belt 218 Series Crawler Cranes Fill The Bill At Florida Hospital Site
A new hospital under construction is too close to Miami International Airport to use fixed tower cranes, which would be a hazard to aircraft taking off or landing, so the builder has turned to Link-Belt lattice boom crawler cranes for the site in Doral, Florida. DC Crane Service of West Palm Beach owns six of the 110-ton (100-metric-ton) 218-series Link-Belt cranes, four of which it provided with luffing booms to the project to erect Jackson Health System’s new Medical Center. The 100-bed, 275,000-square-foot (25,550-square-meter) acute care hospital is being built on a 27-acre (10.9-hectare) campus adjacent to the Palmetto Expressway.
“The mobility of crawler cranes is a huge factor in reducing the number of stationary tower cranes,” says DC Crane co-owner 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. We have also been lucky enough to get in on the ground floor on using a tower attachment for the Link-Belt 218s.”
Height On Site
The builder is using one of the cranes to move building materials up to six stories off the ground. Another 218 is lifting floor forms that weigh up to 5,000 pounds (2,268 kilograms) and are 15 feet (4.57 meters) wide by 25 feet (7.62 meters) long. Several of the 218s have been equipped with a total of 180 feet (54.9 meters) of boom and luffing jib depending on their tasks. The new building’s west wing will be 98 feet (29.9 meters) tall when the hospital is completed.
A Look At The Link-Belt 218HSL
The 218HSL is among the Link-Belt crawler crane models on the worksite. Its boom can extend from 40 to 230 feet (12.2 to 70.1 meters), while its jib can range from 30 to 75 feet (9.1 to 22.9 meters) long with a 5-, 15-, or 25-degree offset. Maximum tip height for the 218HSL is 279 feet (85 meters) with a fixed jib.
The 218HSL uses a 270-horsepower (201-kilowatt) Cummins QSB 6.7-liter engine. Its main transport load weight is 99,960 pounds (45,340 kilograms). Onsite, it has a working weight of 192,735 pounds (87,423 kilograms).
“The 218 rig is fairly remarkable for the work that they will do, for no bigger than what those machines are size-wise,” Connor says.
Find The Right Link-Belt
Connor and his wife Jan have been Link-Belt customers for 26 years, the manufacturer says. The oldest 218 that DC Crane rented out to the job site, a 2001 LS-218H II, has remarkably logged more than 32,400 hours. Connor credits operator maintenance with keeping it and the younger Link-Belts safely operational. “I have made it a part of (the operators’) job to keep them maintained,” he says. “It’s not just in appearance, it’s the everyday maintenance that includes greasing, changing the oil, and checking wear points.”
Source: Link-Belt
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