Top Pick: A Tower Crane Operator’s Story

Kraus-Anderson employee Kevin Reinke is at the top of his game. There is no elevator.

Reinke was the tower crane operator on the four-story Gore Annex project at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

His office was a 6-by-6-foot cab, 161 feet above the ground. Every morning at about 5 a.m., he climbed a vertical ladder in a safety cage, with a resting platform every 20 feet. The climb took about 15 to 20 minutes, so once he was up there, he typically stayed for the day, which could last 14 hours. On this project, nothing happened without the tower crane.

The Gore Annex was a 38,324-square-foot laboratory building on one of the tightest and most logistically challenging footprints imaginable. Tucked into the elbow of the existing Amundson Hall, the project site was bounded by an 800-KVA light rail line, occupied classroom buildings and pedestrian walkways serving the campus’s nearly 65,000 students.

The tower crane was positioned about 7 1/2 feet from Keller Hall to the north and 6 feet from the building under construction. A 13.8-KVA power feeder ran down the wall of Amundson Hall at the west end of the site. With only a narrow staging area for materials and equipment adjacent to the building, virtually everything had to be picked up by crane and lifted carefully to the jobsite. Loads could travel only along designated paths to protect nearby pedestrians.

“It’s like threading a needle all day long,” said Reinke, who was widely regarded as one of the most skilled crane operators in the nation.

As of February, the new structure had reached its full four-story height, with decking installed and exterior skin work progressing around the existing building. Reinke was taking requests from about 14 subcontractors, lifting materials that ranged from steel beams and ductwork to concrete materials and equipment.

Some of the more challenging requests included setting 110 glass panels, each measuring 5 by 15 feet and weighing 3,000 pounds, for a new curtain wall applied to both the new and existing buildings. At that point, he had not broken a single item.

But that was not the most sensitive pick Reinke made on the project, according to Project Superintendent Dennis Feela.

During foundation work, “all of the bottom rebar that ran in the north-south direction in our decks were full length, about 45 feet long. Kevin had to get those bars from Union Street, a half block away, to the deck without hitting the existing building or the building to the north, which is only 20 feet away from the edge of the bar. And remember, we started 25 feet below ground and he had to bring the bar up and over the five-story buildings to get it there.”

“I cannot stress enough how impressed I am with this guy,” Feela added.

Reinke’s quality was often matched by the quantity of work he completed.

“On this job, he could have as many as 200 picks in a day,” said Feela. “Today, Feb. 13, it’s before 9 a.m. and he is over 50. On slow days, it could be as low as 20, but on this site there are very few days like that.”

As the new building rose, Reinke’s sight lines became more limited, but that did not hamper his dexterity. To empty a waste container on the southeast end of the jobsite, he picked up the container “blind,” using its exact location, sight-line references and the feel developed through two decades of experience.

He swung it over and across the new structure to a dumpster on the opposite corner of the site, steadied the container before lowering it into the dumpster, then emptied it. He gently tapped one end against the dumpster to dislodge the remaining waste, including a packing strap caught on the lip of the box. The entire process took about 90 seconds from pick to dumpster.

While the hours were long, his commitment to safety never wavered.

“People’s lives depend on your doing your job correctly. You have to have plenty of patience, be able to make good decisions on whether the way someone has rigged a pick is proper and safe. You have to be on your toes from the time you get in the seat until you climb down,” he said.

It was an important job, but not a luxurious one. Reinke’s cab was equipped with an electric heater in winter, an air-conditioning unit in summer and a microwave. Other conveniences were improvised as needed.

“You need to watch what you eat,” Reinke said.

What stopped him?

“Forty to 45 mph winds and gusts, and heavy rain with lightning, shut me down.”

Reinke had been operating cranes for 23 years, including 14 years with Kraus-Anderson. “My dad got me started operating equipment and I just kept doing it,” he said, evolving from crawler cranes to tower cranes.

The tallest crane he operated was the 240-foot crane used for the 8000 Normandale Tower office construction in Bloomington in 2002.

While he was content to sit alone in his cab for hours each day, Reinke stayed in close communication with ground crews and the superintendent. And, he said with a smile, “a visitor is always welcome.”

This article highlights the work of a tower crane operator on a complex University of Minnesota laboratory construction project, including crane logistics, high-volume material picks, tight-site coordination and a sustained focus on construction safety. Explore the Gore Annex project, Kraus-Anderson’s higher education construction experience and the company’s perspective on building a culture of construction safety.