Found out something about tower crane heights that really surprised me

Honestly, I was just looking up some old project specs from a job we did in Chicago a couple years back. I found a note from the site manager that said our tower crane's hook height was 850 feet above street level. That got me curious, so I started digging into records. Tbh, I always thought the Burj Khalifa had the record for the highest crane lift. But I found an article from a trade magazine that said the real record was set in 2012 for a different building in Saudi Arabia, with a lift over 2,000 feet. I had no idea it went that high. It makes our 850-foot lift feel pretty small. Makes you think about the planning and the steel that goes into those masts. Has anyone else worked on a project with a truly crazy hook height?

3 comments

3 Comments

sam_thomas16d ago

That Saudi Arabia record is nuts, makes everything else look small. Honestly, the wind up there is the real killer. At those heights, you're not just fighting gravity, you're fighting the weather. The whole crane mast has to be braced like crazy, and the lift plans get rewritten for wind speed. Seen guys lose a whole week waiting for a calm enough window just to add another mast section. Your 850 feet is still serious work, no shame in that.

veraj5316d ago

Actually @sam_thomas, that record is in Dubai, not Saudi Arabia, but your point about the wind is totally spot on.

williamm8210d ago

So what's the actual record height then?