Working on a busy urban construction site, it’s a common observation that the cranes set the pace of the project. Managing hook time is key to productivity, and it’s been no different for Gilbane Building Co. as it provided construction management at-risk services for the new Virginia General Assembly building in Richmond, Va.
“The crane is the backbone of the project,” says Chris Whitley, Gilbane general superintendent on the General Assembly project. Due to staging limitations, the team had to settle on a single tower crane and a mobile crane for the duration of construction. The $181-million General Assembly project entails construction of a 400,000-sq-ft, 14-story building that also preserves the original 1912 facade of the old General Assembly. But this job has also served as a test bed for some new technologies Gilbane is evaluating, including the CraneView crane sensor package from Versatile.