Thursdays job

[Graeme_McMahon]

Here is a pic of a removal I did on Thursday. To get around this scale of tree, and remove it in 5 hours (approx) could not be done by climbing. The out going cost of the crane and machines could not justify mucking about with climbing.
I'd rather have an easier day in the tower anyhow.

All trunk material had to be lowered down. The principle contractor looked after the extraction of the material and and my part was to get it down to him.

 

[chris_girard]

Looks like an interesting tree to remove Graeme.

How did it go lowering the material down? The tree looks sound from the above picture, and working from that tower must be easier on the body.

Chris

 

[Colin]

That looks like a decent crane just behind the bucket, how come you had to lower the trunk down not crane it in a few pieces?

Looks like in that shot you hung the head out then were switching it over to be craned out.

Cool.

How tall was that one and what's the limit on the crane and tower?

 

[Graeme_McMahon]

Hi Chris
That crane in the shot is a 100 ton crane. The head is cut off at about 170', so the crane had about 180' of jib. To start to lower down the trunk we had to block down another 15'. When I get help I'll post a clip of the head reaching the ground. The tree toppped out at about 220'.

Heres a shot of the first head log coming off at about 140'.

 

[Graeme_McMahon]

The tree had a signifcant lean over the main road, and was a double. There was reasonable concerns for the security of the tree. The travel tower was good for 180'. With the tower and crane backed up to the tree and the crane not able to turn around to put the sections down on the other side, we were limited in length not weight.

I didn't stay and complete the last of the lifts, so I cant give the exact weight of material lifted down, but it would be arounrd 50 ton of trunk. A good friends of mine, Daniel Kelly and Jason Philip carried the show in my absence. The removal of the debris on the ground was efficiently done by Mark Calvi and crew. Thanks to all.

That contract was the curtain raiser to this weeks job further up the same road where we removed 3 similar trees plus the "folding tree"(posted in rigging)in one day. It ended up a less than perfect day as may see in the pictures.

 

[Mark Chisholm]

So, you butt-hitched the top because it was too tall and then used the crane once it was the right height. Did you figure this in advance or was it on the spot? I have had trees where I needed to rope a lead or two because the crane couildn't reach. Each time it was "on-the-spot" decision making. The company we used to rent from would sometimes send a shorter crane than we requested and force us into this position.

 

[Graeme_McMahon]

Thats pretty much how the day unfolds. We had the right artillery 200' jib on the 100 tonner and 180' on the tower, but it wasn't enough. There is no point measureing it prior to the job because it won't change a thing anyhow. Better of to bring along lots of rigging gear(tandem trailer load), and figure it out up there.