Headquartered in Westwego, LA, near New Orleans, Highlines Construction Company specializes in installation and maintenance of high-voltage transmission and distribution power lines for 12 states in the southeast and western United States. Along with electric utility companies, Highlines does electrical work for government facilities, shipyards and the petro-chemical industry. Founded in the early 1970s, the company has grown to more than 200 workers and maintains a fleet of 300 licensed vehicles. That huge fleet includes everything from pickup trucks to marsh buggies with digger derricks, and a Favco 40T hydraulic boom crawler crane. The crane has a 40-ton (36 t) lifting capacity and a four-section boom that is fully powered to 100 ft. (30.4 m) — 30 percent longer than many booms in its class. The crane is built on a Caterpillar power module incorporating a model 320 crawler undercarriage and the Cat 325 excavator cab, so their workers can operate it with confidence. Highlines has been using the Favco since C. F. “Blue” Nata, Highlines’ transmission supervisor, arranged to rent it more than a year ago. During that time, it has been moved around from sandy beaches in the wet, humid climate of Florida to the dusty climate of Oklahoma and on to central Arkansas. In all cases, the crane was moved on a standard lowboy trailer. The use of the Favco crane has been so beneficial to the Highlines’ crew that Nata wants it on all the jobs where a crane is necessary. In fact, he arranged for Highlines to purchase the unit. Although the crane is relatively new, (there are 28 in operation at present) Nata wasn’t concerned about parts or repair since much of the unit is Caterpillar-based, so there is easy access to dealers. The crane itself is manufactured in Harlingen, TX. While the climate in Arkansas made for comfortable working conditions for the Highlines’ crew and the machine, it was a hilly area that hadn’t been accessed by heavy equipment for nearly 60 years. Highlines’ work in the central part of the state near Malvern was for the Entergy Corporation, an electric utility that serves Arkansas along with parts of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. The work entailed rehabbing 4.5 mi. (7.2 km) of transmission lines that had been installed in the early 1940s. It involved removing H-frame double-circuit wood poles and installing 27 straight line steel poles plus re-conductoring one side and adding a fiberglass transmission line. In all, it was a 12-week job. The line had been de-energized, so working live wasn’t an issue on this job, although Highlines has a crew of linemen trained in live line work for their applications. A small dozer was used to clear an access road so a crew could get to the old line. As for the Favco, it has 30-percent gradeability and tracks that can extend from just under 10 to more than 14 ft. (3 to 4.2 m) in width so that getting to the poles using the crude access road was not a problem. Even after rain turned the ground into a mud pit, travel was unimpeded because ground-bearing pressure on the Favco crane is rated at only 2.8 psi versus 60 to 105 psi for comparable tire-mounted, rough-terrain cranes. After the access road was done, the lower sections of the new transmission poles were set in the ground. Here’s where the optional auger attachment on the Favco crane was used. On the Highlines’ machine, it’s a McMillen 14K2 two-speed auger drive. It was mounted at the midpoint of the boom so extra pressure could force the auger into the rocky ground. In some cases though, the crew had to jackhammer the new holes though solid rock. The auger speed can be as much as 59 rpm applying a torque of 14,000 lb./ft. Drill depth was 48 in. (122 cm) in this case, and the auger was operated by a proportionally-controlled foot pedal. After drilling the holes, the crane was used to set the lower section of the new steel poles. Each section weighed 5,000 lbs. (2,268 kg) and was 55-ft. (16.7 m) long. The second operation was a multi-stage process. Lines had to be detached from the cross bars, insulators removed, cross bars detached and lowered to the ground, old poles pulled, new steel poles set and the old wiring reattached through pulleys so it could eventually be pulled for the new wiring. The Favco crane was used throughout the job. It held the wires out of the way while linemen unbolted the wooden H-bars, then it was used to lower the bars to the ground. Next, the crane was used to pull the old wooden poles from where they had originally been set. Pulling force on the poles ranged from 15,000 lbs. up to 25,000 lbs. depending on how anchored they had become after 60 years of being packed in rocks. After the old poles were removed, the top section of the new steel pole was set in place on the lower section. The tops only weighed 3,000 lbs. (1,361 kg) but were 100 to 115 ft. (30 to 35 m) long, which utilized the 100-ft. (30 m) reach capability of the Favco crane. Finishing the pole setting was routine as the lineman reattached the wiring and pulleys. A bucket-type platform and two truck-mounted National cranes (one with a personnel work platform attached) also were used in supporting roles, mostly to lift the linemen to the work and to hold smaller components such as the cross bars. Due to the fleet of equipment, the Highlines’ crew could set as many as four poles a day. The last portion of the job, the re-conductoring, used the Favco. Each spool of the new wire weighed 22,000 lbs. (9,979 kg) and had to be moved from the carrier, then placed on the pulling stand. The Favco operator on the Malvern job was Eddie Clark, a veteran of 20-plus years of crane operation. Although he had only been with Highlines for a few months, Clark said he was able to get into the cab and immediately start working. He said, “There aren’t as many ’sticks’ [operating levers] on this machine as there are on some other cranes so it’s easier to understand.” Because the controls are just like Caterpillar excavators’, most operators have had experience with similar machines. Site Superintendent Clen Chadwick said that five out of the 15 men on this job were capable of operating the Favco crane. There were other features that Clark thought were important. “You can fool other cranes [i.e. work around the limit switches] but not this one,” he said. “The load moment indicator not only has a sound and video alarm system, it’s got a hydraulic control lockout that shuts it down if you are trying to go out of limits.” Clark also liked the counter-rotation of the track when turning the machine. In his words, “It cuts steeper. When we’re on a job like this, we start as soon as it’s light and work until dark so we have a lot of seat-time in the cab. This Favco has always been comfortable, and I don’t feel like I’ve been running in an endurance race at the end of the day.”
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