Manitowoc 18000 makes impressive lifts on lock in upstate New York

A massive project to transport power plant components through the Erie Canal is underway in Schenectady New York and a Manitowoc 18000 crawler crane is at the center of the action.

In September a team of engineers and local union contractors erected the 660 USt crane—equipped with 120 ft of boom—near the end of a bulkhead on Erie Canal Lock 8. Since then the crane has been lifting 260 USt generators 197.5 USt turbines and 142.5 USt rotors onto barges for transport to Albany New York where the parts are then shipped to various power plants around the world. 

Lomma Crane & Rigging rented the Manitowoc 18000 to the contracting team. A sales representative for the South Kearny New Jersey-based equipment company said that the crawler crane was chosen for its capacity and compact footprint which enabled contractors to make the lifts from a custom-built crane pad that was engineered by Lomma to fit on the limited real estate of the bulkhead.

The crane will continue to make similar lifts into 2017 helping contractors to move equipment through the Mohawk River section of the Erie Canal that would otherwise be immovable by truck or rail.