WHEN EXPERIENCE MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
In Clarksville, Tennessee, Gateway Health System is getting ready to move its medical materials, patients and staff to the new Gateway Medical Center that will be completed in July of 2008.
The construction of this 510,000 square foot hospital started in June 2006, under the direction of BE&K Building Group, the General Contractor, and has been very challenging for many trades involved in the project. Among them, Shaw & Jones Masonry, a masonry contractor out of Brentwood, Tennessee, who took advantage when bidding this project of its fleet of 25 Hydro Mobile mast climbers and its 11-year experience with this access equipment to win the contract. Jerry Jones explains: "Some of the contractors that we bid against did not have mast climbers. This made it hard for them to align their prices with ours."
Shaw & Jones Masonry was contracted to lay bricks from the 2nd to the 5th floor of an 89 feet high fa硤e; but with a one story lobby already in construction and the rest of the hospital built in recess, they had no ground clearance to set up their mast climbers.
"We know our Hydro Mobile platforms very well and we know there is always a solution to every challenge", says Jerry. "We came up with an unusual setup with the base of the machines installed inside the first floor and the masts extended through the roof. Then we basically lifted the mast climbers with a 200 TN crane and installed them on the masts, above the first floor's roof."
Shaw & Jones Masonry had an average of 25 persons working on this project, with 10 masons laying brick on 90,000 square feet of facade. 12 Hydro Mobile mast climbers were used and with no access for other lifting equipment, two 4,000 lb capacity hoists were set on the platforms to load brick and other material.
Originally the schedule for bricklaying was 6 months, but Shaw & Jones Masonry plans to finish one month early. "Hydro Mobile's platforms are faster to set up than other access equipment and once they are in place, you can put brick pallets or any heavy loads anywhere on their 7' wide decks. What's more, our masons work from a lower area, lifting and laying brick always at an ergonomic height. They feel safer, they work faster and they get less tired", said Jerry Jones.
Mike Kehrwald of Mid-South Equipment, a distributor of Hydro Mobile, offered his observation about Shaw & Jones Masonry: "They have been a long time client and own two types of Hydro Mobile mast climbers: M-series, supporting up to 20,000 lb of material, and P-series, perfect for smaller jobs that require high loading capacity. They even have first generation M-series that they bought in 1996 and that they still use on most of their jobsites."
General Contractor: BE&K Building Group
Masonry Contractor: Shaw & Jones Masonry
Hydro Mobile Distributor: Mid-South Equipment
|
