The terror attacks on the USA last September and the subsequent collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York prompted many organisations to ‘do their bit’. But when your business is supplying overhead cranes it is not always obvious what to do.
New Jersey based Moye Handling Systems chose to donate a $70,000 crane to the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA).
“Not enough can be said of the terrible loss New York City suffered on 11 September 2001,” said Moye Handling president Russ Chelak. “We provided the specified crane at no cost, to fulfill our need to do something in the face of this atrocity. In all likelihood, it will be used to help rebuild the subway infrastructure destroyed in the disaster.” Moye Handling installed a 5t Demag ZKKE crane in NYCTA’s Tiffany Street shop in the Bronx, the iron shop which fabricates the structural steel used throughout the New York City subway system.
The Transit Authority had put the project out to tender and, on opening the bids, found that Moye’s bid for the job was $70,000 lower than the next lowest bidder – exactly the wholesale value of the equipment being donated. Moye’s bid included only labour and shipping costs. As the oldest and largest Demag dealer in northeast USA, Moye negotiated a special arrangement with Demag, which claims to have provided more overhead cranes to NYCTA than any other manufacturer. Moye had previously installed 20 Demags in NYCTA’s Coney Island overhaul shop, the USA’s largest subway repair facility.
Tiffany Street shop superintendent William McDuffie explained the benefit of installing an EOT crane in the workshop: “The way we moved steel around the shop before was with HiLos, driving the large steel beams around. You could hit people, bump into machinery. Work stopped when you moved past an area. Now material moves overhead and work on the floor doesn’t come to a standstill.” He added that the new crane also allows workers to carry full-size 20ft beams that previously had to be cut in half to be moved around the shop.
