Dylme Construction erects 160-unit apartment complex in 75 days with help of LS-138H II
To
fulfill a need for affordable senior citizens housing in the south Florida
area, First Florida Builders Corporation turned to Dylme Construction
Company to construct the Riverview Apartments in Lake Worth, Fla., 10
miles north of Fort Lauderdale. The project schedule required Dylme to
build 160-unit, consisting of four interconnected structures in only 75
days.
To accomplish the task Dylme used the Outinord tunnel form technique, which is a cost effective and quick means to erecting a concrete structure. The Outinord method is a versatile method of constructing multi-story buildings. It has been used for many years in South Florida and in many parts of the world.
The Outinord tunnel technique is a system of erecting each layer of the structure using flying forms and then pouring concrete to form up the walls and floor of the structure. Workers strip and erect the forms in the morning and pour concrete every afternoon. After the concrete has set, Dylme crews strip the forms and recycle them from the previous day’s work. In addition to being reusable many times over, the forms are also rapidly adaptable to any number of configurations. In a matter of minutes carpenters can rearrange them, add or delete various accessories to them and have them ready for reinstallation.
"Cycle time is an important aspect of the project," said Mike Brady, First Florida Builders Corporation project supervisor. "Safety is our most critical concern on this job. Speed and productivity, while also very important, rank a distant second and third.
We are building four interconnected four-story structures that will have a total of 160 units. The pace that we have set for this job is such that safety is our most important job. Our schedule is to have them built in 75 days, so speed is obviously a factor."
A project’s schedule can’t be kept without a knowledgeable and experienced crew, and the right equipment. Measuring between 24 to 32 feet in length, eight feet tall and seven feet wide, each flying form weighs between 7,000 and 8,000 lbs.
"Initially we thought that we would need a 150-ton crawler crane to fly the Outinord tunnel forms and handle the materials like concrete and block for this job. Fortunately, when Rick Wiebelt of R & J Crane came here to estimate the job’s needs, he was able to show us that their 80-ton rated Link-Belt LS-138H II could handle it," said Brady.
The new Link-Belt LS-138H II plays a large part in the planned success of these buildings. The crane operated at boom angles of 60 to 77 degrees and working at radii of 42 to 95 feet. Flying the forms and pouring concrete with a bucket are just two of its duties. They also use the Link-Belt crane to lift and place reinforcing steel bars and to supply concrete blocks to the upper floors of the buildings.
The Link-Belt LS-138H II lattice boom crawler crane has several advancements over its predecessor. It has been upgraded to an 80 ton rating (at 12-foot radius) and has 200 feet of conventional boom or 180 feet plus 60 feet of boom jib combination. A new, remote counterweight assembly-removal system, improve self assembly. The crane has more stability because of a wider and longer lower, which the side frames can be retracted to 11 feet, 11 inches for transport. The total transportation weight is less than 90,000 lbs.
The LS-138H II also features a fine metering pump control for precise load movement control. The new senior citizen building in Lake Worth is a good example of the critical need for fine inching control.
Operator Bob Tucholski, a 27-year veteran crane operator, said that he often finds himself working in the blind with only two-way radio directions to guide him.
"The forms that I lift weigh between 7,000 and 8,000 pounds. The one thing constant about the job is the wind and it is ever changing. While this isn’t that much of a problem on the ground level floor it can become one as the forming progresses upward. It is imperative that I have a very stable machine to work with and a hard level surface to work from. There are times that my on-board computer indicates that I may be approaching the load limits. This is no time to be concerned with stability or responsiveness. I hold the key to the safety of the men working beyond my vision. I have to be right the first time. When the signalman wants a quarter of an inch up or down with an 8,000 pound form hanging from the crane, he certainly doesn’t want three or four inches," said Tucholski.
One of the first things the general contractor did was to construct a stable well-compacted crane access road entirely around the periphery of the finished building. This was an absolute must because the crane could be working from any position as the building’s construction progresses from the ground up.
"I don’t have the time to wait while they build me a level pad to make the lifts. I needed a level place to work from and a stable crane to work with. It is very important to have both. The additional 10,000 pound lifting capacity, boom reach and faster travel speed of the new LS-138H II really do give me a leg up on safety. It wasn’t long ago that we would have been using a 150-ton machine instead. With the increased stability and added counterweight system, we can do the same work with the new 80-ton machine," said Tucholski .
The crane operator’s experience and the on-board computer prove invaluable. As the Outinord forms are reconfigured their weights change. It is vital to the safety and progress of the job that the crane operator knows precisely how much weight he is lifting and how far out he has to reach with it. Wiebelt said just how an important a feature the on-board rated capacity limiter, the PAT El-65, is on all his Link-Belt cranes when discussing their versatility. Wiebelt emphasizes how the reliability of the computers has increased since they were first introduced on cranes.
"Our operators now have heightened awareness of them with increased confidence in them. That, combined with the operator’s experience, provides our customers an additional safety factor at no additional cost to them.
Because of the typically high temperatures and humidity that we have in our work area, we have also equipped our crane’s operator’s cabs with air conditioners. That, too, is a safety factor as well as being a comfort component," added Wiebelt.
The Riverview Apartment project was completed on time and under budget.
Link-Belt Construction Equipment Company, with headquarters in Lexington, Kentucky, manufactures a full line of telescopic boom and lattice boom cranes for the construction industry worldwide.