Wagstaff Crane Service based out of Murray, Utah, provided services for installation of a 175 ft., 125,000 pound sky bridge at the new Kathryn F. Kirk Center for Comprehensive Cancer Care and Women’s Cancers at Huntsman Cancer hospital.

Wagstaff Crane Service was subcontracted to unload, assemble and place a steel pedestrian bridge in its final position on the north side campus expansion. The pedestrian bridge is part of a multi-phase expansion project and ties into the Phase III expansion started in 2011. Due to the location of the bridge and how it integrates into the multi-phase expansion, the bridge needed to be placed prior to the start of any of the Phase V structure, slated to begin construction in 2022.

Presented with the unique challenge of working near a congested area of the hospital with heavy traffic on the side of a mountain, Wagstaff Crane Service employed its flagship crane, the LTM 1750-9.1 with the recent crane software upgrade. The improved load charts made this lift possible, without the upgrade the lift would have been over 90% of the total capacity. The Wagstaff project management team considered a crawler crane as the alternative but it proved to be more costly for all parties involved.

“We were planning for this lift about a year before this took place. Numerous different configurations had been drawn up including a proposal with plans showing a critical lift at 93%. The option to bring in a large crawler crane was also considered due to the fact that the lift was taking place over a functioning hospital clinic with close proximity to power lines, and active life flight helicopters. These risks coupled with a critical lift made some nervous to proceed, until the update was released, and we could present a new and improved lift plan that showed a safer lift,” said Ronnie Wagstaff, Project Manager for Wagstaff Crane Service.

The LTM 1750-9.1 is a popular option among customers because it is easy to transport, can fit in tight spaces, sets up quickly, has high lifting capacity and a variable boom system. “The LTM 1750-9.1 was able to drive to the site with equipment installed with only an additional 11 truckloads of parts needed. The crane was assembled and ready to work in approximately 12 hours,” said Wagstaff.

“A combination of limited site space, constrained site access, fully open facilities adjacent to and below portions of the bridge, weight and distance of the pick, as well as the need for several different configurations for the offloading and ground pre-assembly of the bridge at close radius to the crane and setting of the support steel on the north east side of the Phase 3 building, were all determining factors in the use of the LTM 1750 for this project,” Wagstaff continued.