For more than 20 years, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees have been playing baseball at PNC Field in Moosic, PA, where a major project to renovate and improve the stadium has recently wrapped up. Manitowoc and Grove cranes were instrumental on the project.
As the minor league, AAA affiliate of the famed New York Yankees, the team attracts considerable attention – and so does its stadium. Only experienced contractors with superior equipment were called in to work on the high-profile, $43.3 million project. As such, New Tripoli-based Tri-City Erectors was selected to erect the stadium’s lighting towers and other structural steel framing.
Robert Fatzinger, founder of Tri-City, explains why the company chose a Manitowoc 11000-1 crawler for much of the job. “We chose a Manitowoc 11000-1 crawler for the majority of the job because of its long reach and high capacity capabilities,” he says. “We couldn’t bring any cranes onto the inside of the field, so we raised the lighting towers over the outside perimeter and into place.”
Tri-City configured the crawler with approximately 140 ft. of boom and 40 ft. of fixed jib. The lighting towers weighed approximately 21,000 lbs. each and were about 110 ft. tall. Fatzinger says the crawler worked well because they were able to easily move the crane for each lift, whereas rough-terrain and all-terrain cranes would require frequent resetting of the outriggers.
The Manitowoc 11000-1 has a 110 USt capacity and 200 ft. of boom. It can be configured with a maximum boom and jib combination of 190 ft. plus 60 ft. It’s from Manitowoc’s range of smaller capacity crawler cranes, ideal for job sites where maneuverability is key.
Also during the project, Tri-City used a Grove RT540E rough-terrain crane to erect structural steel framing around the lighting towers, and other parts of the stadium’s floor and roof. Fatzinger says choosing the RT540E was all about size and maneuverability.
“We didn’t have an abundance of room inside the stadium’s footprint where we needed to position the crane to place maintenance walkways and platforms,” Fatzinger says. “The RT540E was able to fit into the tight working quarters and we were able to move it around the job site quickly as we worked from the first base to third base sides.”
The Grove RT540E has a capacity of 40 USt and its four-section, full power boom extends to 102 ft. Its compact 8 ft. 6 in. wide chassis allows for easy maneuvering on the job site and efficient transport between projects. It features a 6.7 L Cummins Tier III emissions-compliant diesel engine and a load-sensing hydraulic system that uses a piston gear pump for crane functions, ensuring smooth operation.
Tri-City rented both cranes from Harrisburg, PA-based Stephenson Equipment, the local Manitowoc distributor it’s been doing business with for more than 15 years. The cranes were rented from Stephenson’s Wilkes-Barre location, with branch manager Dave Donati.
Doing business since 1990, Tri-City specializes in steel erection, pre-engineered buildings, rigging, renovations and plant maintenance. Tri-City’s work on the PNC Field project lasted three months, beginning in August 2012 and finishing in November 2012.
