I guess I’m getting to cynical in my old age. Big cranes like that cost BIG bucks. Every time I bid a job with big equipment, I made sure my guys had their stuff ready to go, so as to minimize time on the job. And I’d try to find a cheaper way to place whatever it was we had to pick. ‘Cause if the job didn’t make money, the bosses came right to me.
I hope this isn’t a deal where the contractor is padding his billing.
Good point on the crane. If it isn’t there for some big lifts, then maybe it doesn’t need to be there. I’m guessing maybe to place the rebar pieces or something like that? Don’t know. I do know that that Ditch Witch has a trailer hitch and could have been towed into place.
A unique formulation is that they hire local union workers or workers under union contracts. These workers interface with the Kiewit foremen & bosses. So this interface layer travels from project to project as they leverage local worker resources for the project needs.
Of course, there is always the subcontracted specialty resources that are engaged. I don't know if this is specified to be union only.
The crane is there in that size as much for reach and stability as for capacity. If this was a firm prepared flat site, a crawler crane with less boom could get closer to the lift — both in pick and in placement. Out there with the variable slope it will be of use in swinging gang forms for the future sidewalls, swinging those pre-tied rebar mats and possibly swinging buckets of mix to spots that they don’t want to set a pump for later.
Kiewitt has lots of this big equipment and it is always best on this size job to bring the big stuff that you might need rather than have had the mobilization cost for a medium and a big on each side.
Anytime you have an area where you have to swing in equipment into a lowered area, you don’t want to mess with near-capacity picks.
The way that Kiewitt and other bigs look at this is that the equipment is all already owned and paid for from past work. It justifies itself being available and if you run over in labor somewhere, you are making money on how you charge your own in-house equipment into your job cost. I would estimate that Kiewitt has about 0.8 to 1.3 billion in such equipment — although on the books it might be less due to depreciation.
Kiewitt is one of the most soundly run outfits in the business. They always make money. The Surety Bonding industry holds them up to everyone in the business at that level as one of the companies to pattern operations after as they are rock solid.
Guys like Perini, Clark, Dick and others don’t begin to have the success pattern that Kiewitt does. (Disclaimer — I never worked for them. I have worked for others of that size)