Largest Mobile Crane in North Texas Towers Over Arlington, Texas Skyline

For a few weeks in December, motorists driving along State Highway 360 in Arlington are being treated to a new addition to the city's skyline: the tall steel boom of the largest mobile crane in north Texas.

The Liebherr LR 1600/2 is a massive crawler crane designed to lift heavy objects including machinery, windmills and concrete panels. The crane is rated to lift up to 600 tons with a maximum lift height of 187 meters, making it the largest crane of its kind in this part of our state.

Mid Cities Erectors out of Aurora, Texas has deployed the new crane on behalf of general contractor Bob Moore Construction. The crane is being used to raise the walls on Building 1 of the Automotive Logistics Center, a 1.2 million square foot manufacturing and distribution center complex for Northpoint Development and General Motors.

The new complex is being built with a technology called tilt-up construction, a process in which the walls are formed horizontally with large concrete panels that are stood, or "tilted-up" into place with a crane. A powerful crane is necessary to perform tilt-up construction; the concrete panels at Automotive Logistics Center stand almost 50 feet tall and weigh as much as 140,000 pounds each. In a matter of a few days the Liebherr LR 1600/2 lifted 137 of these panels into place, positioned to exacting standards of a fractional inch.

"The Liebherr crane adds remarkable power and capability to our jobsite," said Tray Hardin, Project Manager for Bob Moore Construction. "The panels weigh as much as 65 tons each, which is easily within the crane's ability to lift. The real advantage of this crane for our application is that its higher lift capacity allows the crane to reach further to lift each panel into place. That longer reach means the crane has to move less frequently as it stands the panels, and as a result it increases the speed our crews can build the building's shell. The new crane will help us to complete the building safely and in time to meet General Motors' aggressive schedule to begin its operations next year."

Click here for print-sized photos of Liebherr LR 1600/2 crawler crane at General Motors' Automotive Logistics Center in Arlington, Texas: http://www.generalcontractor.com/photos/alc/crane/

For more information about General Motors' Automotive Logistics Center, visit http://generalcontractor.com/media/releases/20170619.asp