Cranes in Motion
By Seth Skydel
W. O. Grubb Handles Heavy Lifts on Virginia’ s Largest Highway Project
Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel
W. O. Grubb Crane Rental’ s 825-ton capacity Liebherr LR1750 / 2 lattice boom crawler was called on for heavy lifts on the largest highway construction project in Virginia’ s history.
It is the largest highway construction project in Virginia’ s history. Starting in 2020 and expected to last until at least the fall of 2026, the $ 3.9 billion Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel( HRBT) expansion aims to ease congestion along a nearly 10-mile corridor on Interstate 64 by adding twin, two-lane 8,000-foot-long bored tunnels from Hampton to Norfolk, Virginia.
In some ways, this is the tale of two machines, both uniquely designed for their roles in the success of the expansive project. One is a 46-foot-high, 430-foot-long tunnel boring machine( TBM) nicknamed Mary that was manufactured by Herrenknecht of Germany for Hampton Roads Connector Partners( HRCP), the project’ s joint construction venture.
The other machine is a Liebherr LR1750 / 2 lattice boom crawler crane in the W. O. Grubb Crane Rental fleet. The 825-ton capacity crane sports a 450-foot main boom, 344-foot luffing fly-jib, 69-foot assembly jib and a derrick attachment and carries 400 tons of counterweight.
W. O. Grubb is a family-owned, Chesterfield, Virginia-based company that provides bare and operated crane rental services in the Mid-Atlantic region. For the HRBT project, the crane rental operator played a key role in several ways, fielding and operating as many as 22 cranes at any given time.
“ The size of this project is massive,” said Brian Thiede, engineering manager at W. O. Grubb.“ To facilitate work in several phases, we brought in a number of lattice boom crawlers based in our Richmond, Virginia, yard on a long-term basis. Our branches in Portsmouth and Newport News also provided support daily with other cranes, including using all-terrain models and crawlers on barges for piling and bridge work.”
Following 18 months of construction and shipping, the TBM arrived on the HRBT’ s South Island. There, over a three-month period, W. O. Grubb assembled the boring machine that was longer than a football field and as high as a four-story building, placing its components in a 65-foot deep pit.
Central to that effort was W. O. Grubb’ s Liebherr LR1750 / 2 lattice boom crawler. Other cranes in the company’ s fleet that were
10
March 2025 • www. cranehotline. com