1. A KHL Group Publication www.khl.com/act
The magazine for the crane, lifting and transport industry
November 2015
Volume 11 ■ Issue 11AMERICAN CRANES & TRANSPORT
Official domestic
magazine of
the SC&RA
Manitowoc 31000 drafted to lift roof
trusses at Atlanta NFL stadium
INTERVIEW:
Koichi
Tadano
Telecrawler
market
expands
REGIONAL
REPORT:
Mexico
1000000 ddddrafted to lift roof
Good
ground
game!
ACT 11 2015 Front Cover Final.indd 1 23/10/2015 12:56:11

2. 48
SITE REPORT LIFTING
ACT NOVEMBER 2015
Maxim’s Manitowoc 31000 provides clutch lifting at the
$1.4 billion Mercedes Benz Stadium jobsite in Atlanta.
J
ust when you thought football
stadium design couldn’t get any
more fancy, the rendering of the
new Mercedes Benz Stadium was unveiled
in Atlanta, GA. Global architecture,
engineering and planning firm HOK,
along with tvsdesign, Goode Van Slyke
Architecture and Stanley Beaman &
Sears, designed the new sports venue that
features an impressive array of technology
driven elements, including a retractable
roof that HOK said “provides a radical
departure from the kinetic roofs of other
sports facilities.”
The roof design was derived from the
shape of a falcon’s wing, a reference to
the NFL Atlanta Falcons that will play
in the stadium. “The roof features eight
triangular panels that wrap the stadium
and move in unison along individual
tracks,” HOK said. “This allows the roof to
open and close like a camera aperture.”
Other unique design elements include
360-degree HD halo video boards built
into the roof that offer fans clear views
from every seat. There will be a technology
lounge, a 100-yard bar and a floor-to-
ceiling window view of downtown Atlanta.
As well, exterior lighting can change the
color of the transparent façade.
The 31000 was selected for the job for
a variety of reasons, mainly its massive
capacity combined with its small footprint
and impressive mobility, Ashlock said.
“The 31000 has a small footprint for its
capacity and low ground-bearing pressures
due to four trunnion-mounted crawlers,”
he said. “The crane has extensive mobility,
including the ability to travel with a load.”
The crane’s Variable Position
Counterweight (VPC) system means
that no ground preparation is required as
would be the case for a sled or wheeled
counterweights in other large-capacity
cranes, Ashlock explained.
“The VPC system allows the
counterweights to adjust to an optimum
position depending on the weight
of the load,” he said. “The 31000 has
110,000-pound single line pull and
main load drum line speed of 456 feet
per minute. The crane is available in
combination boom, fixed jib and luffing
jib configurations and has five series of
counterweights for more flexibility for
multiple jobs.”
Ground was broken on the
stadium in May 2014, and
completion is scheduled for 2017.
Stadium jobs are generally
among the most complicated and
expensive. These jobs require the
use of a variety of types and sizes
of cranes, and such is the case
for this new facility. Fittingly the
project has a true “super star”
crane, a Manitowoc 31000 on
rent from Maxim Crane Works.
M.V.P.
With several other cranes from
its fleet working onsite, Maxim
realized the potential for having
such a huge crane on the high
profile project.
“With the economy booming,
the market has created sufficient
demand for this machine,” said
Alan Ashlock, president, southeast region,
Maxim Crane Works. “With Maxim Crane
Works’ coast-to-coast footprint, it seems
like a natural fit for the largest crane
company in the nation to have the largest
Manitowoc crane.”
The 2,535-ton capacity 31000 was
dispatched to the stadium jobsite in
September 2015. The crane was delivered
in 127 loads. There were 24 loads of
custom-designed steel crane mats as well,
Ashlock said.
The steel mats further lower ground-
bearing pressure in the bowl of the
stadium. Ashlock said the matting cost
close to a $1 million.
“The 31000 will be on the job
approximately six months,” he said. “It
is scheduled to be available for its next
project in the second quarter of 2016.”
Once the boom and all the crane’s
components were onsite, it took about 30
days to build the crane.
“This particular erection was
complicated by getting trucks in and out
of a crowded jobsite and working around
multiple other crawler cranes inside the
bowl of the football stadium,” Ashlock
said.
Good ground
Specially designed steel crane mats were
custom made for the project and cost almost
$1 million.
The roof design resembles a big pinwheel,
although the design was said to be inspired
by the wing of a falcon, which is the mascot
for the NFL Atlanta Falcons football team.
The stadium will also be home to the Atlanta
United FC of Major League Soccer. It will
host NCAA basketball tournaments as well as
a host of SEC college football games.
PHOTOS:SarahFowler
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3. 49
LIFTING SITE REPORT
NOVEMBER 2015 ACT
Stadium stats
71,000: number of seats for NFL games
32,456: number of seats for MLS games
$1.2 billion: current estimated price tag
for the stadium
2 million: total square footage of the
stadium
360 degrees: high definition halo video
board
$385: per game price of the stadium’s
most expensive seats
2020: the year the NCAA men’s college
basketball Final Four will be held at the
stadium
2017: College Football Chick-fil-A Kickoff
Game will be held at the stadium featuring
the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Florida
State Seminoles
27 years: length of Mercedes Benz USA’s
sponsorship
Super star status
Had the 31000 not been available, the
project would have required the use of two
smaller cranes and the need for additional
ground preparation.
As well, without this crane, the
roof components would have been
manufactured smaller, which would have
meant extending the timeline as more lifts
would have been required.
“More lifts would have been higher risk
with multi-crane picks,” Ashlock said. “In
addition, the 31000 offers much more
freedom of mobility around the site.”
Maxim has provided several other cranes
for the project including six Manitowoc
2250s, two 210-ton Link-Belts, two
Manitowoc 888s and two 75-ton rough-
terrain cranes.
The 31000 is rigged with 262 feet of
main boom, 118 feet of luffing jib, series
five counterweights, a 16-part 1,000-ton
load block and two-part 200-ton auxiliary
block. After the crane was assembled and
tested, lift plans were made for all of the
lifts.
“It’s all going great,” said Ashlock.
“The assembly process went smoothly
without any major issues. The first pick is
scheduled for late October.”
Ashlock said the 31000 is currently
sitting inside the bowl of the stadium but
that it will be moving to several locations
around the jobsite for the various roof
picks it will make.
“It will mainly be lifting structural steel
for the uniquely designed roof trusses,”
said Ashlock. “Over 100 lifts are planned
of various pieces ranging from 200 to 750
tons.”
The largest crane the company has
ever built, Manitowoc has produced
two 31000s since the launch of the
machine back in 2005. The first 31000
has been working in South Korea for
the past couple of years. Operated by
Chunjo, South Korea’s largest crane rental
company, the first unit recently was used
for two huge lifts for the expansion of a
petrochemical plant.
Manitowoc worked closely with Maxim
on dispatching the unit to Atlanta and is
very happy to see the crane on such a high
profile job.
“It’s very exciting to see the Manitowoc
31000 working on its first North
American jobsite,” said John Kennedy,
senior vice president of crawler cranes at
Manitowoc. “The timing couldn’t be better
– Maxim had been very interested in this
crane, and the company now has an ideal
project for it to work on. The construction
of this stadium required a crane that had a
very high capacity, but could fit into tight
working quarters.”
The compact footprint of the 31000,
which is enabled by its Variable Position
Counterweight (VPC), has allowed the
company to position the crane inside of
the stadium while it works, something
other large crawlers would not be able
to accomplish, Kennedy explained.
Additionally, the crane’s size does not
require the same degree of ground
preparation that other large capacity
cranes would require, which is saving
Maxim both time and money.
The use of this crane has generated a lot
of interest.
“We certainly plan to build more 31000s
in the future and believe that demand
will only rise when other companies see
how well it’s performing on this project,”
Kennedy said.
“This project showcases that the
31000 can be used on commercial
or infrastructure projects as well as
petrochemical, chemical, pulp and power
plant applications,” Ashlock said.
General contractor on the project is
Holder Hunt Russell Moody (HHRM)
joint venture. Maxim is working for Derr
& Isbell Construction. ■
game
For the required stadium lifting, the 31000 is
rigged with 262 feet of main boom, 118 feet
of luffing jib, series five counterweights, a
16-part 1,000-ton load block and two-part
200-ton auxiliary block.
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