Lifting the Unexpected: From Gold Gloves to Garbage Trucks
Barnhart is known for setting conventional heavy components such as reactors, towers, and transformers weighing hundreds of thousands of pounds. But not every lift is conventional.
From time to time, Barnhart moves pieces that are unusual, symbolic, or even iconic.
Recently, Barnhart’s St. Louis team lifted a 35,000-pound gold baseball glove at a sporting goods manufacturer’s headquarters in the city. The 30-foot-tall steel and fiberglass glove was enclosed in a steel cage. It required one of Barnhart’s and the world’s largest cranes, a 900-ton hydraulic crane, to complete the lift. In windy conditions, the crane hoisted the glove hundreds of feet in the air and set it into a custom steel frame atop the gold tower.
Unconventional cargo shows up in many forms.
Riverboat Launch
Barnhart provided engineering, crane, and transport solutions to launch a new 80-foot-long riverboat in North Dakota. The boat traveled several hundred yards down a 16.8% grade on a PST double-wide 12-line Goldhofer trailer to reach the water. Using a CC2800-1SSL crane with 300- and 120-kip tension links, the crew lifted the vessel from the trailer and set it in Lake Sakakawea.
Historic Garbage Truck Relocation
In Memphis, Barnhart moved a 12,000-pound 1960s-era garbage truck at the National Civil Rights Museum. The truck represented the fateful 1968 sanitation workers strike that brought Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to the city. The team fabricated and welded a steel frame to support the truck. A 22,000-pound capacity forklift with fork extensions then moved it.
Hyperbaric Chamber Removal
At a naval station in Connecticut, Barnhart removed a 20,000-pound hyperbaric chamber from inside a building, guided it through a narrow alley, and prepared it for refurbishment. The crew used toe jacks to raise the chamber and placed skates underneath, then transferred it to a steerable dolly. A 150-ton hydraulic crane was maneuvered into the alley to lift the chamber onto an over-the-road trailer for transport.
Mausoleum Move
Barnhart also transported and lifted a custom granite mausoleum at Memorial Park Funeral Home and Cemetery in Memphis. The 60,000-pound structure, built for hit songwriter Mark James, was lifted and positioned by a 350-ton hydraulic crane onto its prepared foundation.
And baseball is not the only sport Barnhart has supported. On New Year’s Eve, Barnhart’s Minneapolis team participated in a New Year’s celebration in St. Paul, Minnesota by safely lowering a giant hockey puck with a crane to ring in 2006.
Whether it’s a riverboat, a giant gold glove or a 140’ long vessel, Barnhart brings the same planning, engineered rigging solutions, and standards to every job, no matter how big or small.