AOS was awarded the contract, while Whiting and Morris were sub-contracted.
Roberts says: “The only way to complete the recondition to requirements was to take the entire crane down, transport it to the yard [seven miles away] and perform the majority of the work off site. Due to the age of the crane and the fact that it sits completely outside on top of the turbine deck, exposed to the Florida heat and rain, it was important to break the crane down and repair areas that would not be accessible if left standing. The crane was in a poor condition and was taken out of service months earlier for safety reasons.”
However, AOS, an R&M Materials Handling, Inc. master distributor, was the only one of four bidders for the contract (made directly to Lakeland Electric) who proposed taking the crane down. It was selected despite making the most expensive offer.
“Dan Klasel, at Whiting Services in Jacksonville, Florida and I have known each other for over 15 years, having worked together in the early 1990s at Philadelphia Tramrail Company.
“Whiting’s responsibility was the electrical portion of the job. I also went to Morris’ Detroit division and hired Paul Baugher to supervise the takedown of the crane. He ran my crew during the takedown and disassembly before we brought him back in February to re-install the crane, again working with my crew.
“Performing the work off site allowed the power plant to operate under normal conditions.
“A 550 ton mobile crane was used to take down the crane. It took six days to take down and disassemble, and seven days to reassemble and put back up. It took seven flat bed trucks to move from site to our yard and seven to return it to the site. We worked both indoors and out. The large girders and the trolley/hoist was worked on outside and all the controls, cab, trucks etc inside.
“The crane was turned over to the City of Lakeland with a week to spare. That week we worked with the city to prepare for the outage and perform all required checks and tests. The outage is now in full swing and the crane is performing as expected.”
