Daniel T'seleie
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (May 28/04) - The tower crane on the site of the new federal building will be more useful to the builders than nearly any other piece of equipment.

"They save hours of labour," said Carl Hauk, a member of PCL's crane crew. Hauk, who lives in Calgary, has been working with tower cranes for 20 years and has helped erect about 200 of the mammoth beasts all over North America.

Setting up the crane begins with the foundation.

An engineer chooses an appropriate spot where the ground will not shift, says Hauk. Concrete is poured and the base of the crane is set about four feet deep into it.

The tower crane is assembled, jib and all, at a low height with the help of a smaller, mobile crane. Once assembled, the tower crane height is raised in a creative way.

The first step in raising the height is to make sure it is balanced and level.

Once level the crane hoists a section of mast into place near the top.

Then specialized jacks raise the crane enough so the section can be slid in.

The sections of the mast are then bolted together.

"They're big bolts," Hauk said. Workers must be careful not to drop any since each bolt weighs around five pounds.

On one of Hauk's jobs a worker was hit by one of these falling bolts.

It nearly cracked his hard hat. The crew gave him a gold-painted hard hat, Hauk said.

Now that the crane is assembled construction will move faster. The crane can reach any spot on the site and can lift up to 22,000 lbs.