Liebherr LR 1300.1 SX Crawler Crane’s Long Reach & Lift Capacity Key To Erecting Parking Garage For New Mental Healthcare Facility

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You can see the Liebherr LX 1300-1 SX on the jobsite for the new Children’s Hospital of King’s Daughters Mental Healthcare facility, which is scheduled to open in 2022. (Photo courtesy of Liebherr.)

Structural Unlimited LLC recently completed a nine-story parking garage for the soon-to-be-finished Children’s Hospital of King’s Daughters (CHKD) mental healthcare facility. The new 14-story, $224 million facility is located in Norfolk, Virginia, and is expected to immediately serve as one of the nation’s top pediatric mental health hospitals. Patients will have access to indoor and outdoor areas, including a rooftop recreation center and healing garden, providing safe and secure spaces for individual and group therapy. Structural Unlimited selected the 330-ton (300-metric-ton) Liebherr LR 1300.1 SX to set concrete wall panels in place for each level of the new parking structure.

LR 1300.1 SX Lift Specs

The CHKD parking garage project required Structural Unlimited to pick up and place panels weighing up to 90,000 pounds (40,823 kilograms) at 110 feet (33.5 meters), a feat easily achieved with the LR 1300.1 SX’s strong load chart. The crawler crane’s main boom can reach from 65 to 361 ft (20 to 110 m), and the lattice jib extends from 65 to 370 ft (113 m). For the project, Structural Unlimited had to configure the crane so the luffing jib tip remained underneath a Liebherr tower crane also on the jobsite. As such, the LR 1300.1 SX was equipped with a 95-ft (29-m) main boom and 125-ft (38-m) luffing jib, and the contractor was able to lift and place the concrete panels side by side before welding them together.

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This aerial view shows the LR 1300.1 SX placing 50,000- to 90,000-pound concrete wall panels to construct the new CHKD Mental Healthcare facility parking garage. (Photo courtesy of Liebherr.)

New & Better Technology

The LR 1300.1 SX is available with optional equipment to improve safety and simplify work with steel erection, pre-cast placement, and infrastructure applications. For example, the optional Boom Up-and-Down Aid monitors and displays the crane’s approach to the tipping point, factoring in such variables as wind speed and the crane’s length and angle. Real-time calculations monitor for unsafe configurations and will automatically prevent boom and jib movement as needed. Structural Unlimited used the Boom Up-and-Down Aid on the parking garage project, which simplified handling during the lift, and also equipped all four of the LR 1300.1 SX cranes in its fleet with pendent links made from carbon fiber to increase lift capacity.

Source: Liebherr