Stopped at a job site in Pittsburgh last Wednesday and noticed something about the lattice boom setup

I was passing through Pittsburgh for a family thing and stopped to watch a crew setting up a Manitowoc 18000 on a bridge project off I-279. What caught my eye was how they had the boom sections laid out on these custom dunnage blocks instead of the usual timber stacks. The super told me they machined those blocks from recycled plastic to prevent any sliding on the asphalt. It made me think about how we just throw timbers down on site and hope for the best. Have any of you guys switched to something besides wood for your boom assembly mats?

3 comments

3 Comments

grace6071mo ago

Haven't you noticed this same thing happening everywhere though? It seems like in every industry people are trading old reliable stuff for something that's supposed to be "smarter" or "greener" without really thinking it through. I saw a guy at the hardware store last week buying these expensive silicone caulk strips instead of just using regular caulk and I wanted to ask him why. It's like we've all decided that the simple way we've done things for decades must be wrong because it's not fancy enough. Those timbers have been working fine forever and I bet those plastic blocks cost ten times as much for no real benefit.

sageadams1mo ago

Hope for the best" is pretty much how every site I've been on handles it. I get that recycled plastic sounds fancy but we've been stacking timbers since forever and I've never seen a boom slide off on asphalt. Timbers are cheap, everywhere, and if it's real hot out they don't turn into a puddle. Plus half the time you're not on smooth blacktop anyway, you're on mud or gravel where those custom blocks would just sink. Seems like solving a problem that isn't really there.

victor_jones991mo ago

Timbers are the gold standard for a reason. Cheap, heavy, and they work. Let the green guys burn their budget on plastic blocks.