SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) - It takes Loren Hacker about 20 minutes to get to work, and that’s after he arrives at his job site in downtown Spartanburg.
Hacker’s office is inside a small compartment about 180 feet in the air. It’s attached to the tower crane at the site of the future 10-story AC Hotel by Marriott on the corner of West Main Street and Daniel Morgan Avenue.
Five, often six, days a week Hacker starts his climb up the 207-foot crane, sometimes as early as 4:30 in the morning. He doesn’t climb back down until the day’s work is complete, which can be anytime between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m.
“I get up here 30 minutes before the guys below start working,” Hacker said in between hoisting bundles of materials and buckets of concrete around the construction site one recent morning. “When I get up here I do all my crane inspections.”
Hacker works alone in the crane’s small air-conditioned cab, operating levers on a console that controls the behemoth’s movements. He communicates by radio with supervisors and signalers below.
“I listen to commands and do what they need me to do,” he said.
When Hacker gets hungry or thirsty, he grabs food and drinks out of a mini-fridge just outside the cab. And if he needs to go to the bathroom, sealed jugs and buckets serve as a toilet. Hand sanitizer replaces soap and water.
“It’s all you can really do,” he said.
But Hacker, a native of Alabama, doesn’t mind the solitude, thanks to a bird’s-eye view of Spartanburg and work that he’s passionate about.
“I love my job,” he said. “It requires a lot of focus, keeping an eye on the guys below and keeping them safe.
The tower crane, supplied by Maxim Crane, was erected at the hotel site in late June. It has a 175-foot radius and a capacity to lift 22,500 pounds.
John Burleson, field superintendent with the hotel project’s general contractor Robins & Morton, said it has been awhile since tower cranes have been visible in Spartanburg. The last tower crane used near downtown Spartanburg was at Spartanburg Medical Center in 2004, he said.
Burleson said the hotel site’s tower crane functions like a weather vane.
“It will move back and forth in the wind so that if there is a heavy wind coming from either side, it won’t blow the crane over,” he said.
Hacker and construction crews below digitally monitor weather throughout the day. In the event of a nearby storm with lightning, the crane temporarily ceases operations and Hacker waits out the storm inside the cab.
“If it’s lightning we can’t do any lifts, because if you’re touching the crane hook, or anything on the hook, and lightning strikes, you could die,” he said. “As long as I’m in the cab I’m fine because the crane is grounded. So if the crane is struck, lightning will go straight to the ground.”
Driving and maintaining a tower crane requires significant training, experience and testing to get certification that has to be renewed every few years.
Hacker joined the International Union of Operating Engineers when he was 18 years old and went through a four-year apprenticeship program. That helped him get certifications in commercial driver training, crawler cranes, tower cranes and large and small hydraulics, he said.
Hacker has since worked on tower cranes throughout the Southeast and a few in the northern part of the United States. Projects have included construction of power plants, gas plants and a variety of buildings, he said.
“This crane (in Spartanburg) is one of the shortest I’ve worked on,” he said.
Construction of the AC Hotel began in October with the demolition of the former Event Rentals building.
Earlier this spring, the foundation was completed for the 120-room hotel, a $20 million joint venture between local businessman George Dean Johnson Jr. and OTO Development.
In May, more than 150 cubic yards of concrete were poured to cover about 9,000 square feet to create the hotel’s basement floor. The basement will house the hotel’s electrical and mechanical rooms, a laundry facility and storage areas.
The hotel’s first floor will include the main lobby, a lounge, kitchen and elevator lobby. The second floor will have meeting areas and an exercise room.
In July, the tower crane played an integral role as the first level of guest rooms took shape and construction crews poured concrete to form the hotel’s third floor.
Bruce Collins, director of development with OTO Development, said the tower crane is used to lift a variety of large tools, steel cages for concrete columns, bundles of post-tension cables and extra concrete as part of completing the hotel’s remaining floors.
“There is a constant sort of ballet going on at the site as they move these materials up and down as they pour the concrete floors,” he said.
The tower crane also allows the crews to prefabricate some things on the ground, such as steel cages that are then hoisted up and set in place, Collins said.
“It leaves the upper deck (of the hotel) clear so the people there can continue to work up there,” he said.
The hotel’s exterior structure is scheduled to be finished by mid-November, according to the project’s development timeline. The hotel is expected to open in September 2017.
“It would be virtually impossible to do this project without the crane,” Collins said. “When you get to about a six- or seven-story building, you almost have to have some sort of crane. A tower crane allows you to move faster because you aren’t setting up and taking down a smaller crane each day.”
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Information from: Herald-Journal, https://www.goupstate.com/
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