By: Deborah Johnson Wood
Last weekend, Christman Company crews braved the cold to set the Peiner SK415 Hammerhead Tower Crane in place atop the newly constructed parking structure that forms the first five levels of the $90 million Secchia Center, the future home of the MSU College of Human Medicine.
The crane looms over traffic on westbound I-196 at the Ottawa exit and will be used for the final concrete prep work on the parking deck, then throughout the construction of the facility on the corner of Michigan and Division. The erection of the structural steel frame begins in May.
“We’re right on schedule,” says Douglas Norton, the project executive overseeing the construction phase of the Secchia Center. “There’s some concrete work that needs to be done to ready the parking deck to receive the structural steel frame. That work begins this week.”
Four 36-inch-diameter, 20-foot long concrete piers and a six-foot-thick concrete mat anchor the crane, which was constructed with a 550-ton assist crane. The Peiner’s hook height measures nearly 234 feet—some 271 feet above the parking deck’s foundation.
At maximum hook reach of 229 feet, the crane can hoist 9,025 pounds and boosts that to a whopping 22,025 pounds when the hook is closest to the tower.
The crane operator is a certified tower crane operator from Christman Constructors, and has previous experience with construction on Health Hill.
Plans call for completion of the 180,000-square-foot, seven-story building in 2010. It will have a four-story atrium, several hundred classrooms, and be able to accommodate 350 students.
Source: Douglas Norton, Christman Company; Marsha D. Rappley, M.D., Dean, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
Photograph by Jeff Hill - All Rights Reserved
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Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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