18.08.2015

First job for Manitowoc MLC300

Manitowoc has started deliveries its new 300 tonne MLC300 crawler crane with Variable Position Counterweight (VPC) that was launched at Conexpo last year.

The first MLC300 to go into action belongs to Milwaukee, Wisconsin based Dawes Rigging & Crane rental - an ALL Erection group company - one of 10 MLC300s that ALL has on order. The crane was bare leased to Lunda Construction of Black River Falls, Wisconsin for a highway project at the Zoo Interchange, just west of Milwaukee.

The first lifts involved setting large tub girders for a highway ramp weighing over 62 tonnes and measuring up to 20 metres. The crane was rigged with 48 metres of main boom and 172 tonnes of counterweight.
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The first Manitowoc MLC300 to go to work

Joe Ruddell, sales manager at Dawes Milwaukee said: “As with any job for the Department of Transportation, there are going to be restrictions, specific time frames in which we can work and guidelines that have to be followed. One big challenge is the limited space we have to situate the crane in, along with having to move the crane from one location to another in a limited amount of time over uneven ground conditions. The MLC300 offers a smaller footprint than other crawler cranes and its VPC counterweight system is perfect for this job. The reduced footprint and added stability really matter when the crane is sitting on limited real estate between eastbound and westbound lanes of the freeway with traffic whizzing by.”

“The MLC300 has afforded us greater lifting capacity and more stability, and it needs less ground prep time and around 50 percent less matting which can mean thousands of dollars in savings a month.”
The interchange job is due to continues until 2018.
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The crane was rigged with 48 metres of main boom and 172 tonnes of counterweight