Construction projects in New York City come with well-known challenges. City regulations and tight quarters are just part of the job, but choosing a better tool makes any project go more smoothly. That’s what Gregory Dec of SKG Brick found on a recent project.
The 14-story masonry and hollow-core-plank structure will house 236 rental apartments on a “very cramped” site, Dec said, and his team is allowed to load only from the 23’ wide side streets. Because of the narrow width, standard telehandlers won’t work, limiting the options to a telescopic-boom or knuckleboom crane, or a rotating telehandler.
“The Department of Buildings allows only one crane per site simultaneously, and it’s being used by other trades,” Gregory said. “While we own several large Effer and Cormach knucklebooms capable of reaching the height, those machines are relatively slow and we could not supply ample materials needed to meet the construction schedule.”
With its 167’ vertical reach, a Magni rotating telehandler was the only machine that could reach all 14 floors and work quickly enough to lift an average of 4-6 truckloads of block, rebar, and specmix materials to the floor in a typical 8-hour day.
Working speed compared to a knuckleboom, as Dec noted, was a deciding factor in purchasing a Magni. “Prior to buying the Magni rotator, our main production bottleneck above 50’ was the speed of the knuckleboom. Magni is capable of quickly and safely supplying all the materials we need within the confined sites of NYC, eliminating rigging and loading crew overtime and use of cranes.”
In addition to meeting the one-crane-per-site city restriction, choosing a Magni provides other advantages. Phillipe Bisson of Able Equipment Rental provided the Magni rotator to SNG and said the Magni can replace several machines.
“You can have a hook, forks, rotating forks, work platform, bucket, winch. So much stuff that instead of having many different types of equipment on your jobsite you can have one with the various attachments and it makes it so much easier to maneuver around your jobsite,” Bisson said.
In addition, a rotating telehandler’s operating speed is substantially faster than a standard telehandler’s. “We did a video where we demonstrated the speed of a standard telehandler, and the Magni was 50% faster,” Bisson noted.
“And once you start adding the capability of using the remote control, it makes it such an easy machine to operate, as well and much safer, especially if you have the remote and you’re right next to your load.”
That increased speed translates directly into increased competitiveness. “Customers are seeing the benefit. If you’re on a jobsite and you’re able to feed your jobsite 50% faster that means a 6-month job could be done in 3-4 months and that’s significant in terms of cost and benefit vs. your competition,” he said.
While Dec purchased his Magni, Bisson said Able has more than 50 available for rent and they go out for jobs nonstop. Dec said his company depends on specialized equipment and has worked exclusively with ABLE for approximately 15 years because of Able’s service and responsiveness.
These machines demonstrate in real time that choosing a better tool has myriad benefits, including safety, productivity, and profitability.
Lift & Access is part of the Catalyst Communications Network publication family.
