Every once in a while something comes a long that you are sure you would have never seen.  In the crane world, that can be quite often as engineers put together some complex situations that cranes are used in. Having a crane on a barge is nothing new really, but did you see the recent news article showing an MLC650 mounted to a barge?

That is right, an MLC650 was mounted to a barge so that it could help replace transmission towers that were located in the James River.  According to the article, in most cases a trestle would have been built to accommodate a crawler crane, but this project was not going to be a traditional one.  Because Manitowoc makes cranes of various footprints, there was no need to do any construction just to get the crane where it was needed.

The lift superintendent, Mike Berry, said that the "compact footprint" the MLC650 offers fits right on the barge, giving the company the chance to get into an optimal position for the lift.  The crane was erected right on a Poseidon P10 portable barge that measures just 132x132 feet square.  That is pretty impressive for a crane that has a boom more than 400 feet high.  The two transmission towers that were being replaced had top sections weighing more than 28 tons and had to be lifted over 435 feet into position.

When you take a minute to read the article, keep in mind how much the real crane looks just like the diecast MLC650 that we offer in our store.  The details are amazing and just knowing what this piece of equipment can do in real life is just incredible.  Just to get this job done, the company had to use 3 other Manitowoc cranes.  Another barge mounted 4100 Ringer assisted the main MLC650, while a 4100WS and a 4000W were setup on the bank of the river to assist with the removal of the old tower.

It's pretty neat to see all of these cranes working together in one place.  Stay tuned for more crane news and stories about how the MLC650 and other Manitowoc cranes are used in real life situations!