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A high life in Mobile By ANDREA JAMES 523 FEET ABOVE MOBILE -- It's quiet up here at first. Noises from the street fade before they reach this high. Man-made things that look imposing from the ground lose their stature: Government Plaza crouches like a leggy white spider, the Mobile Civic Center nestles down like a mushroom, and containers at the Alabama state docks stand in stacks like red and blue Legos. The Causeway and Bayway stretch side by side like veins until they disappear over the water. The quiet ends when crane operator Noel Smith flips a switch in his control cab, and the air conditioner starts to hum. He then powers up the crane. Below him, the buck hoist elevator clambers and harnessed men in hard hats begin clinking and banging. Smith, 48, is usually too busy to marvel at the symphony of it all. Sitting on his perch, he moves loads weighing up to 16 tons, a job where a mistake of inches can lead to catastrophe, either for the costly structure or the workers who look almost insignificant from on high.When afternoon storms thunder in, he shuts down operations but stays in the cab. Walking the plank: Before sunrise every workday, Smith takes the buck hoist -- a no-frills service elevator -- up 30 stories to a 419-feet-high gangplank slightly wider than a diving board. Without a harness, he walks the plank to an orangish-yellow cage flanking the RSA Battle House Tower under construction in downtown Mobile. That cage is his beanstalk. He climbs a ladder the rest of the way, higher than the Regions Bank building, past the Van Antwerp building's roof, the AmSouth Bank building, and even past the top of the unfinished tower, until he reaches a cylindrical metal drum, and one last mini-ladder leading to a trapdoor. Beyond that door he won't find a castle, but an unassum ing 7 feet by 8 feet cabin where he will spend the next 12 hours operating one of two tower cranes being used to construct the future tallest building in Alabama. At 523 and 561 feet, the tower cranes are the highest structures in Mobile. From his gray upholstered chair, Smith watches the sun rise over Mobile Bay and the USS Alabama. He says he likes watching the sun rise. As for the rest of his spectacular view, he merely shrugs and says, "It gets old." "I've been doing this for 13 years," he adds. A day in the life: Smith is one of four RSA Tower crane operators, who are some of the highest-paid men on the job site, according to Pete Faulkner, project manager for Atlanta-based Archer Western Contractors Ltd., the general contractor. Tower crane operators in the region typically earn between $27 and $28 per hour, plus time and a half for overtime, Faulkner says. At that rate, if a crane operator worked a 60-hour week all year, he'd earn about $100,000. Smith can easily log 20 hours of overtime per week because he arrives at 4:30 a.m. and stays in the cab until as late as 5 p.m. He allows himself 30 minutes to make the morning climb, but he scurries up and down like a pro, and the climb takes 15 minutes. Operating the crane is "brain-racking" work, he says. All day long, he grasps a joystick and, with a tilt of his wrist, turns the crane in a mechanized whir, moving loads between the ground and the top floors. Cargo weighing up to 32,000 pounds dangles from the steel hook attached to the trolley that traverses the crane's long jib. He has a Nextel phone, a personal cellphone, a two-way radio and an intercom system that allow him to communi cate with ground crews and the second tower crane operator. The operators also communicate using hand signals -- two thumbs in means bring the trolley toward the building -- and a computer measures wind speed and the hook's coordinates. It all takes a lot of concentration, he says. "See how far down I have to look?" he says, pointing at the bottom of the red clay construction site. "When you're picking up loads, it sways and twists." He keeps Windex in the cabin to regularly clean the windows, which surround him on three sides, and underfoot. And he uses binoculars to make sure loads are rigged correctly. He brings a sandwich in a cooler for lunch, often taking bites in between working the crane, he says. "You eat on the run," he says. A Gatorade bottle and trash bag double as his port-a-john, but he says he usually takes care of that before making the climb. But when it's necessary, he puts it all in three zip-lock bags, and stuffs it in his bag to take down later. "It's very seldom I have to do that," he says. To keep cool, the air conditioner stays cranked to full blast and a Honeywell fan blows air around the little cabin. Without those things, "it's like an oven in here," he says. "If I didn't have this little fan, I'd burn up." He also keeps a checklist of daily, bi-weekly and monthly things that need to be inspected, like the bolts and pins, wire ropes, trolley wheels and counterweights. If he gets a moment of free time, he watches the news and weather on a green plastic television set and talks to his wife back home in Mississippi. Or he people watches. For the seven months that Smith has worked on the RSA construction project, he has watched daily happenings around Mobile play out like The SIMS computer game. "It's kind of cool," he says. "You can see everything." He sees boats and barges drifting down the river, flames and fire trucks "flying around everywhere, running around like a chicken with their head cut off," and vagabonds trespassing at the Alabama state docks. "It's fun to just watch people," he says. "I see people jump off the trains -- hobos." He laughs when recalling the time he saw a man and woman jump out of a boxcar's sliding door. "They just bailed out of the train car," he says. "They had a little dog with them, and all those bags." Brain work: A crane operator's job is high-paying and complex, and one of the more sought-after positions in construction, according to Ken Atha, director of Mobile's Occupational Safety and Health Administration office. Operators have to calculate weights, determining the maximum amount the crane can lift at different angles and wind speeds. There are strict requirements for crane operator training, and many companies do their own certification, Atha says. "These machines do a lot of work. If they fail, it can cause devastating effects," says Atha, whose office is investigating a crane accident involving Interstate 10 bridge repair. A lot can go wrong with a crane: It can topple, the cables can break with too-heavy loads, sending deadly debris crashing down, or dangling parts can hit workers. "We've had individuals crushed between the crane body and a building," Atha says, referring to previous OSHA investigations. "There's a lot of things going on at one time when you are operating a crane." That's why "there are not a lot of rookies on tower cranes," says RSA Battle House Tower Project Director Ron Blount. "They are an important commodity on a construction job." Smith has 25 years' experience in construction and 13 years in tower cranes. He compares operating the tower crane to a fighter pilot flying a jet. "I've never killed anybody, never hurt anybody," he says. His r?sum? includes work at the Beau Rivage Hotel and Casino in Biloxi, the Golden Moon Casino in Philadelphia, Miss., the Isle of Capri Casino in Shreveport, La., and the Portofino condominium tower in Pensacola. "There's not a piece of equipment I haven't run," he says. Weathering storms: Smith says the hardest part of his job is getting used to the depth perception needed to deliver construction parts. He is unfazed by lightning, high winds and Gulf Coast storms. Through it all, the operators stay in the crane. The cranes are electrically grounded, and the workers stop what they are doing until the storm passes over, he says. "It's too much of a climb to go up and down," he says. He's been in the crane while it was struck by lightning. It's loud, he says, but doesn't hurt. "You are taking a chance if you go down in lightning," he says. "You are better off just to stay in the seat." From his vantage point, he can see storms approach and radio down the news. The other men on the job site are more exposed to the elements, and they ultimately make the call when the rain is too heavy to continue work. "If they want to work in the rain, that's up to them," Smith says. Fog is another hazard, sometimes becoming so dense that Smith can't see the top of other buildings, so he shuts down the crane. When winds top 32 mph, he puts the crane in "weathervane" mode, allowing it to swing freely. During Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis, the cranes were left in weathervane mode and survived the storms without incident. Smith has been injured by lightning, but it was when he was working on his roof at home in Mississippi. The lightning jolted a tree and jumped to an air conditioner unit, then to the ladder he was holding. It traveled up his left arm, through his chest and out his right thumb, he says. His wife had to bring him back to consciousness, and he was hospitalized for three days. "It knocked me out," he says, "I fell off the top of the house." Home ground: The high pay and diverse experiences of a crane operator come with a price. "I'm in here more than I am at home," Smith says. Home for Smith is in Columbia, Miss., but most nights he sleeps in a travel recreational vehicle on Moffett Road at Jr's RV Park. He copes with the distance from his wife with a good phone plan, and calls in the morning, during free time and before bed. "I get tired of this kind of work," he says. "I'd like to be at home with my wife every night." Smith drives two hours every weekend to be with his wife and daughters, Jennifer, 22; Misty, 21; and Samantha, 15. His wife, Judy, says she wishes she saw her husband more than once a week, but she doesn't worry about his safety. "He's safer there than he would be on the ground," she says. "Nothing can hit him in the head up there." Even so, she predicts that if she tried to visit her husband in his elevated cubicle, she would have a "massive coronary" and die, and nobody could reach her. "I wouldn't climb up there if they gave me a hundred dollar bill," she says. His line of work gives her husband "arms of steel" from pulling himself up so much, she says. "He's in very good shape." The couple enjoys riding motorcycles as a hobby, and Smith keeps a picture in the tower crane cab of Judy with a Harley-Davidson. "I'm very lucky to have her; she takes care of everything," he says. At around 4:30 p.m., it's usually time to come down for a shift change and his nightly phone calls to Judy are on his mind. A three-step process turns off the crane and puts it in weathervane mode. He kills the power by pushing a big red button, grabs his lunch bag and turns off the air conditioner. "It's not a bad job," he says, climbing out the trap door in his black T-shirt and red suspenders. "I go home as clean as I did when I came to work." And the Q & A section sidebar: Is operating the tower cranes dangerous? Yes, but not much more risky than other high-rise construction jobs. Falls are the leading cause of death on construction sites, followed by falling objects, cave-ins and electrocutions, according to a construction industry safety video. An air horn is used to alert workers of possible falling objects, said Frankie Brock of Daphne-based Brock Safety Services, who oversees safety training on the site. When the horn goes off, all employees are instructed to stop working, look up and assess what is going on. Any worker on the site whose job is more than 6 feet off the ground must have some kind of fall protection. Falls may be prevented by using guardrails, safety nets and harnesses. Tower crane operators do not wear a harness. Their climbing ladders include a protective cage, and the cab is not considered a fall hazard area. Can the crane operate in high winds? What kind of training does a crane operator need? There is a certifying body, the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators, but many companies issue their own certifications. Licensing is required in 12 states and six cities, but no certification is required within Alabama, according to the commission. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration does not certify crane operators, but does have strict training requirements for the job, according to Ken Atha, director of Mobile's OSHA office. Noel Smith, one of the operators of the cranes at the RSA job site, started by operating smaller and lower cranes, called "cherry pickers," then progressed to higher tower cranes. Why don't they take the cranes down for a hurricane? The cranes are designed to withstand hurricane-force winds. Removing
them takes a "major ef? The cranes survived hurricanes Ivan and Dennis without damage. Will the cranes go any higher? Yes, the north crane will be jacked up in mid-September from 523 to 675 feet, past the planned height of the top floor. The south crane is scheduled to remain at its current height, 561 feet, until it comes down in the fall. The north crane will stay in place until spring and the entire project is scheduled for completion in summer. Are crane operators union members? Some are, but not at the RSA job site. Archer Western's parent company, Chicago-based Walsh Group, is heavily unionized, according to the company, but Archer Western operates an "open" shop, meaning employees do not have to be union members. Do the cranes operate at night? Four crane operators work the cranes in day and night shifts. How long are the shifts? An operator can be in the crane for up to 12 hours at a time. Operators also sometimes work six-day weeks, depending on project deadlines or to make up for time lost due to weather. What is the crane tower made of? A series of tubular steel trusses, with a thickness of about 17 mm, or a little more than a half-inch, in the main structure. How high will RSA Battle House Tower be when it is finished? The tower will soar to 745 feet, and will have 35 occupiable floors. The spire crown will have to be brought in by helicopter, according to Faulkner. In a period of years, the building may settle and shrink up to 12 inches, according to RSA Project Director Ron Blount. What is the current tallest building in Mobile? In Alabama? The United States? The world? At 424 feet, the AmSouth Bank Building is the tallest building in Mobile, according to data on the Web site of Emporis, which tracks information on high-rise buildings. It was the tallest building in Alabama from 1969 until 1986, when it was surpassed by the 454-feet-tall SouthTrust Tower in Birmingham. The SouthTrust Tower is the tallest building between Dallas and Atlanta, and will maintain that status until the RSA Battle House Tower is complete in 2006. Reaching a height of 1,450 feet, the Sears Tower in Chicago is the tallest building in the United States, and the fourth-tallest building in the world. The Taipei 101 building in Taiwan is the tallest building in the world, reaching to 1,671 feet. Are the cranes sitting ducks for lightning? "It's a big piece of steel sticking up in the air," Faulkner
said. But the cranes are grounded, and Archer Western paid to have a special
lightning protection system with copper grounding rods installed. The
grounding keeps operators safe when they are inside the cab if How much weight can the crane lift? Between 16,000 and 32,000 pounds, depending on how far out the trolley and hook are from the crane's center. That weight capability also fluctuates depending on wind speed. What is the crane doing most of the time? Moving an object via crane is called "flying" it, and countless objects are "flown" around the construction site. The objects are rigged to the crane's hook using steel chains and nylon ropes. The crane moves precast concrete, elevator equipment, metal studs, Sheetrock, plumbing packs, buckets of concrete if the pump breaks, wall forms, column forms, four-by-fours, support jacks, air compressors, generators and glass frames, among other things. Could this building be built without using a tower crane? It could, but it would be much more difficult, according to Faulkner. Second to the invention of the elevator, the tower crane is what most makes it possible to build skyscrapers, according to Blount. Why are we so fascinated by tall buildings? "It's addictive, there's a romance to it," Blount said. |