Link-Belt LS-218H Drives Piles for WW II Memorial

&#8220;Here in the presence of Washington and Lincoln, one the eighteenth century father, and the other the nineteenth century preserver of our nation, we honor those twentieth century Americans who took up the struggle and made the sacrifices to perpetuate the gift our forefathers entrusted to us: A Nation Conceived in Freedom&#8221; Midlantic Piling Inc., of Glen Rock, PA, was awarded the pile installation subcontract on the $56.1-million World War II Memorial being built in Washington, D.C. The contract calls for the driving of between 500 and 600 14BP89 bearing piles, up to 55 ft. (16.8 m) in length. The majority of the bearing piling, in the foundation areas, are approximately 35 ft. (10.7 m) long. The bearing pilings are being driven to refusal in bedrock. Refusal criterion is defined as no less than 10 blows to the inch.According to Midlantic Piling Inc.&#8217;s President William J. Lytle, the construction site of the new National World War II Memorial was initially a swamp area that was later filled in with various materials. &#8220;The reclaimed area is very soft. You can see the ground pumping as we work on it. It is not a very strong soil above the bedrock, but the bedrock is tough,&#8221; he said.Because of the scope of the job, Midlantic purchased a new Link-Belt LS-218H Series II, conventional crawler crane equipped with a 130-ft. (40 m) boom for the heavy-duty pile driving application, from Stephenson Equipment Inc. The 110-ton (99 t) capacity crane will support a 15,900-lb. (7,212 kg) ICE 60S single-acting diesel pile hammer and 96-ft. (29.3 m) long swinging leads. The unit has an optional third drum and a boom selected for its ability to withstand the day-to-day rigors of pile driving, while the footprint of the LS-218H II provides the stability necessary for the crane to work easily on many types of ground conditions.&#8220;The firm purchased the new crane not only for the WW II Memorial, but to increase the capability of our equipment fleet to handle similar demanding jobs like it in the future,&#8221; said William A. Lytle, secretary/treasurer of Midlantic.&#8220;We do a large volume of highway work where we need to mobilize often, so we own more Link-Belt HC-218 truck cranes than crawler machines. With the contract at the National World War II Memorial and some other work that we have coming up, we had a need for a crawler machine. We&#8217;ve always had a fondness for Link-Belt cranes and the LS-218H Series II had the features we needed,&#8221; said William J. Lytle.&#8220;It&#8217;s self-erecting and can handle the heavy-duty work we have planned for it. There were other, less expensive cranes available to us, but we felt this was the right machine for us over the long haul.&#8221;William J. Lytle described this project as somewhat different than the company has performed.&#8220;It will be worked straight through. In fact, we are working two shifts here. On highway projects we often work for a while, pull off for a period and then go back in again. &#8220;This project is being pursued in strictly delineated consecutive phases. In other words, we go in once, do our job and get out of the way of the next scheduled contractor,&#8221; he explained.In addition to relying on the Link-Belt cranes to perform the arduous work of pile driving, Midlantic also depends on Stephenson Equipment for equipment support.&#8220;Stephenson Equipment Inc., in Harrisburg, PA, is our Link-Belt dealer. We have bought nine cranes from them since we incorporated Midlantic Piling in 1990,&#8221; said William J. Lytle. &#8220;They are extremely important to us, especially for parts backup and warrantee service. We have found their service to be very good and that is part of the reason we keep going back to them,&#8221; he concluded.Another part of the contract includes the installation and eventual removal of approximately 1,600 wall ft. (488 m) of protective sheet pile with lengths varying from 25 to 35 ft. (7.6 to 11 m). Some of the sheet piles are being driven in owner-designed vault areas, while others are being driven in contractor-designed tunnel areas. A Link-Belt 75-ton (68 t) crane with a 120-ft. (36.6 m) boom, rented from United Crane & Rigging of Baltimore, is helping to handle the two vibratory hammers (ICE and HMC) that are being used to drive and extract the sheet pile.With his son, William A. Lytle, Midlantic Piling Inc. was founded by William J. Lytle in 1990 after a 25-year career with another firm as its pile division chief. Today, the firm covers an area from eastern Pennsylvania down through Maryland, the District of Columbia, and into northern Virginia. It performs any driven piling, especially steel bearing and sheet pile, but its scope also includes precast concrete, pipe and timber piling. Approximately 60 percent of its work are in the public/government sector. The remainder is in the private sector, primarily for building foundations.&#8220;The largest single project that we have done so far would be on an Alexandria, VA, wastewater treatment facility. And, the smallest project undertaken would be a $15,000 to $25,000 sheeting and shoring job,&#8221; William A. Lytle said of the company&#8217;s scope of projects on which it has worked. (Gini and Dan McKain contributed information to this article.) CEG&#8220;Here in the presence of Washington and Lincoln, one the eighteenth century father, and the other the nineteenth century preserver of our nation, we honor those twentieth century Americans who took up the struggle and made the sacrifices to perpetuate the gift our forefathers entrusted to us: A Nation Conceived in Freedom&#8221; Midlantic Piling Inc., of Glen Rock, PA, was awarded the pile installation subcontract on the $56.1-million World War II Memorial being built in Washington, D.C. The contract calls for the driving of between 500 and 600 14BP89 bearing piles, up to 55 ft. (16.8 m) in length. The majority of the bearing piling, in the foundation areas, are approximately 35 ft. (10.7 m) long. The bearing pilings are being driven to refusal in bedrock. Refusal criterion is defined as no less than 10 blows to the inch.According to Midlantic Piling Inc.&#8217;s President William J. Lytle, the construction site of the new National World War II Memorial was initially a swamp area that was later filled in with various materials. &#8220;The reclaimed area is very soft. You can see the ground pumping as we work on it. It is not a very strong soil above the bedrock, but the bedrock is tough,&#8221; he said.Because of the scope of the job, Midlantic purchased a new Link-Belt LS-218H Series II, conventional crawler crane equipped with a 130-ft. (40 m) boom for the heavy-duty pile driving application, from Stephenson Equipment Inc. The 110-ton (99 t) capacity crane will support a 15,900-lb. (7,212 kg) ICE 60S single-acting diesel pile hammer and 96-ft. (29.3 m) long swinging leads. The unit has an optional third drum and a boom selected for its ability to withstand the day-to-day rigors of pile driving, while the footprint of the LS-218H II provides the stability necessary for the crane to work easily on many types of ground conditions.&#8220;The firm purchased the new crane not only for the WW II Memorial, but to increase the capability of our equipment fleet to handle similar demanding jobs like it in the future,&#8221; said William A. Lytle, secretary/treasurer of Midlantic.&#8220;We do a large volume of highway work where we need to mobilize often, so we own more Link-Belt HC-218 truck cranes than crawler machines. With the contract at the National World War II Memorial and some other work that we have coming up, we had a need for a crawler machine. We&#8217;ve always had a fondness for Link-Belt cranes and the LS-218H Series II had the features we needed,&#8221; said William J. Lytle.&#8220;It&#8217;s self-erecting and can handle the heavy-duty work we have planned for it. There were other, less expensive cranes available to us, but we felt this was the right machine for us over the long haul.&#8221;William J. Lytle described this project as somewhat different than the company has performed.&#8220;It will be worked straight through. In fact, we are working two shifts here. On highway projects we often work for a while, pull off for a period and then go back in again. &#8220;This project is being pursued in strictly delineated consecutive phases. In other words, we go in once, do our job and get out of the way of the next scheduled contractor,&#8221; he explained.In addition to relying on the Link-Belt cranes to perform the arduous work of pile driving, Midlantic also depends on Stephenson Equipment for equipment support.&#8220;Stephenson Equipment Inc., in Harrisburg, PA, is our Link-Belt dealer. We have bought nine cranes from them since we incorporated Midlantic Piling in 1990,&#8221; said William J. Lytle. &#8220;They are extremely important to us, especially for parts backup and warrantee service. We have found their service to be very good and that is part of the reason we keep going back to them,&#8221; he concluded.Another part of the contract includes the installation and eventual removal of approximately 1,600 wall ft. (488 m) of protective sheet pile with lengths varying from 25 to 35 ft. (7.6 to 11 m). Some of the sheet piles are being driven in owner-designed vault areas, while others are being driven in contractor-designed tunnel areas. A Link-Belt 75-ton (68 t) crane with a 120-ft. (36.6 m) boom, rented from United Crane & Rigging of Baltimore, is helping to handle the two vibratory hammers (ICE and HMC) that are being used to drive and extract the sheet pile.With his son, William A. Lytle, Midlantic Piling Inc. was founded by William J. Lytle in 1990 after a 25-year career with another firm as its pile division chief. Today, the firm covers an area from eastern Pennsylvania down through Maryland, the District of Columbia, and into northern Virginia. It performs any driven piling, especially steel bearing and sheet pile, but its scope also includes precast concrete, pipe and timber piling. Approximately 60 percent of its work are in the public/government sector. The remainder is in the private sector, primarily for building foundations.&#8220;The largest single project that we have done so far would be on an Alexandria, VA, wastewater treatment facility. And, the smallest project undertaken would be a $15,000 to $25,000 sheeting and shoring job,&#8221; William A. Lytle said of the company&#8217;s scope of projects on which it has worked. (Gini and Dan McKain contributed information to this article.)