Huge crane turns heads at Graham

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This article was published 05/05/2018 (3075 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s estimated that 18,000 people were on Donald Street for the massive Winnipeg Jets street party Thursday night as the game itself took place inside Bell MTS Place. All of the logistical considerations needed for the street closure likely were complicated by the fact that Graham Avenue between Carlton and Hargrave streets also was closed for most of the week.

It was directly related to neither the game nor the street party, but like them, the street shutdown came about as the result of enterprise by True North Sports and Entertainment.

The Graham Avenue closure was required because of the presence of the tallest crane likely ever seen in these parts, one that can rise hydraulically more than 100 metres, or about 35 storeys straight up.

The need for it to be there, at the very same time as the street party around the corner, is the timing of the construction schedule of True North Square.

The 620-ton portable Liebherr crane is used to dismantle large construction cranes and, in this case, it signals the fact that all of the verticality of the 25-storey residential-retail building at 225 Carlton St. is now complete.

“Although it may be subtle, it is fairly significant,” True North Real Estate Development president Jim Ludlow said. “Once the construction crane is removed, it means all the product is on site, all that needs to be lifted by something of that capacity, is up and in the building and/or sitting on the roof of the building.”

The crane that is managing construction of the adjoining 17-storey office/retail tower at 242 Hargrave St. was removed a few weeks ago. Ludlow said that building is on schedule for occupancy by the end of June — starting with the top three floors, where law firm Thompson Dorfman Sweatman is moving in.

The residential tower at 225 Carlton St. is scheduled to be ready for residential occupancy in 2019.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Carlton Street, evidence of the construction of the two-tower Sutton Place Hotel and Residences is starting to materialize.

PCL, the general contractor for True North Square, has been using that site to store material, but that is starting to be removed and a Sutton Place site trailer is now on the ground.

Ludlow said excavation on that site will likely start in a few weeks.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca