The project parameters required that the crane needed to lift 33 tons using a 300 foot boom floating from a platform on the river. The Chicago River has heavy commercial barge & verkeer van pleziervaartuigen waarbij de helft van de rivier open moet blijven. Deze vereiste beperkte de grootte van het kraanplatform en voegde een nieuwe uitdaging toe aan het project. In aanvulling op, de kraan en het platform moesten voldoen aan strikte spoorwegveiligheidsparameters die een grotere kraan- en hefcapaciteit voor het project vereisten. Het North Riverside-gebouw wordt gebouwd op zeven actieve forensen & Amtrak-spoorlijnen. Chicago Steel & Clark Construction gebruikt de kraan om de onderste verdiepingen van het gebouw te bouwen. Na voltooiing van de onderste verdiepingen, torenkranen zullen worden geassembleerd om het gebouw te voltooien.

The Poseidon® Barge engineering and sales staff met with Chicago Steel Engineers to discuss and plan the project. Analysis determined that a 99’ x 132’ x 10’ platform would be suitable for the project requirements. Two layers of wood mats and steel plating were installed under the crane to ensure spreading the load of the crane over the platform surface. Stability analysis was completed to ensure that the list and trim parameters were not exceeded.

The platform was constructed using the Poseidon® P10 Portable Sectional Barges, first introduced at Con-Expo in March of 2014. The platform consists of 23 – P10 44’ x 11’ x 10’ sections and 8 – 22’ x 11’ x 10’ sections. The platform was assembled 4 miles south of the project site. Chicago Steel used a Manitowoc 2250 crane to offload the sections from the truck and set them into the water. A crew of three men assembled the barges in the water. After staging the barges on land and blocking the female pins in the up position, the crew was able to assemble 5 – 44’ units and 2 – 22’ units in a 22’ x 132’ configuration in two hours.

Poseidon® Barge and Chicago Steel were assisted by Thatcher Foundations Inc. Thatcher assisted with their tug boat as well as helping to install the one million plus pounds of counter weights on the crane at the construction site. Kindra Lake Towing played an integral role in planning and moving the platform four miles upriver to the construction site, after assembly was complete. The platform was moved on a Sunday morning to lessen the impact on traffic in downtown Chicago as bridges would have to be raised to allow the crane and platform to pass underneath.

Thank you to Chicago Steel, Clark Construction, Kindra Lake Towing and Thatcher Construction for their support of Poseidon® Barge!