UNM Air Handlers

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Deliveries of air handling units for the University of New Mexico Children's Hospital were delayed, however constructors chose to maintain schedule and erect the building's frame then place the units inside the building upon their arrival.

Required for this project was a device that would enable the units to be placed inside the building's structure.  Crane Service's staff solely engineered and fabricated a 18 ft x 22 ft aerial work platform with a capacity of 20,000 lbs.  The units were placed on the platform, hoisted to the third floor, the platform was anchored to the structure, and the units were transported to their designated location.

Constraints for the design were typical, keep it as light and strong as possible.  However, for transportation purposes the platform had to be designed modularly.  Typically four loading points are ideal, although in this case the platform required two additional large support beams when compared to designing with eight lifting lugs.  An issue that arises with more lifting points is the likely hood each point will experience equal loading, the more lifting points result in a poor distribution of the load, and while being suspended by a crane translates into a severe stability issue.  This was alleviated with what we call rolling or "snatch" blocks.  Rolling blocks are basically pulleys which allow equal loading at two points.  Each choker was rigged to a lug, through a rolling block, and rigged to an alternating lug.

Crews worked for 6 weeks placing over 60 units inside the building.