Ellis Don Construction Manager Ezio Del Fatti and the massive crane recently set up to help construct the Penticton Regional Hospital Patient Care tower.
(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)
October 07, 2016 - 11:17 AM
PENTICTON - There’s going to be a new position available in Penticton for the next three years, and it’s definitely not a job for someone with a fear of heights.
A 55-metre high construction crane has been erected on the site where the new hospital patient care tower is being built in Penticton. A single operator will climb to the operator’s cabin each morning to work the crane, which can operate in winds up to 70 kilometres per hour. It will shut down in temperatures below -20 Celsius.
Ellis Don construction manager Ezio Del Fatti says the crane will be joined by a second in the coming weeks as construction begins in earnest on the $300 million project.
The crane, which has a 70-metre hoist radius, is held up by a four foot deep, reinforced concrete pad.
“It’s trying to tip over, but the weight of the pad is holding it up,” Del Fatti explained.
The first section of he crane is cast into the pad, the remaining sections bolted together. The crane can lift one cubic metre of concrete at the end of the boom, for a total weight of 2,400 kilograms or 10,000 kg closer to the mast.
The hospital tower will be built around the crane, which will be removed at the end of construction and the openings filled, Del Fatti says. The crane will be secured in an enclosed, locked space.
Excavation for the tower is underway and the construction is on schedule.
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