Facilities Management, Northwestern University

Mudd Hall crane lift

At 5.00 a.m. on Saturday, March 11, 2017, in sub-freezing conditions, the team prepared to lift a 61,000 lb generator set, over Frances Searle, onto the roof of Mudd Hall. This required months of carefully planning involving Facilities, Risk Management, both Northwestern and Evanston police departments, the School of Communication, Athletics, Walsh Construction, and the City of Evanston, to ensure that not only the being transported generator was brought to campus safely but the specialized crane required to lift the generator arrived and exited without a hitch.

The team waited to ensure that weather conditions were acceptable to perform this highly technical lift—too much wind and it would have to be rescheduled for the following day. However, that was not the case and the lift went ahead according to plan.

The key to this successful lift was the high degree of collaboration between all parties, from the flagman, to the police officers, to the crane operator. 

The belly tank is 660 gallons usable storage and the generator uses 104.6 gallons/hour.

• at 100% load, the tank can hold at approximately six hours of fuel
• at 75% load, eight hours run time
• at 50% load, 11 hours run time