Throwback
1993 Throwback: Leibherr LG/LTM 11000 Crane

1993 Throwback: Leibherr LG/LTM 11000 Crane

Welcome to this weeks throwback story! This week I would like to share a 1993 news article from the Miami Herald, a Florida newspaper. Writer Angie Muhs interviewed Crawford Custom’s founder, William Hough, when he was operating one of the world’s largest cranes, the Leibherr LG/LTM 11000 crane. Bill erected the girders for the Golden Glades Interchange project in Miami-Dade County Florida. And the story begins….

Steady On

Operator thrives on big cranes challenge.

By ANGIE MUHS
Herald Staff Writer

Bill Hough moves 80 tons of concrete and steel with a gentle, steady touch on a lever that looks like a video game joystick.

Hough hoists 80-ton girders like match sticks, controlling the world’s largest crane to build a new flyover ramp at the Golden Glades interchange. It took him 29 years of work and study to make it look this easy.

"You look around most big cranes and you'll see a gray-haired man in the cab, you've got to start out young and aggressive and really want to do this. You have to keep working up."
Bill Hough 1993
In control: Then, 51 year-old veteran operator Bill Hough, loves running the big crane. Picture courtesy of the Miami Herald.

Hough, from Meadville, Pa., will be in South Florida through December, operating the Liebherr LG/LTM 11000 crane, an electric-blue and white behemoth. His work has taken him as far as Germany to help test the brand-new Liebherr for Anthony Crane Rental.

While he works on the Golden Glades, Hough is training Ron Foretschel, who will take over for Hough. For now, Froetschel, 29, of Coral Springs, is learning.

“You don’t get bored with this, ” Froetschel said. “I get bored with little cranes, so I’m working my way up.”

That’s how Hough got his start, back in 1964. He had always wanted to be a crane operator, because that’s what his father, Thomas, did. His first job was oiling a crane on a construction project on Interstate 79 in Pennsylvania.

That crane, with its 55-foot-long boom, could lift 12 1/2 tons.

“I thought it was a monster,” Hough said, “And now I’m working this.”

This machine can lift 750 tons. Its boom stretches 322 feet. It can be extended even more, up to 543 feet. But crews won’t need that at the Golden Glades.

Hough works in an air-conditioner, upholstered cab with a control panel like a fighter plane’s. On his right, there’s a bank of four gauges, a gearshift and 55 control buttons.

A computer monitors “everything,” Hough said. “It tells you what the wind speed is, how much you’re carrying. I had to learn that the hard way, when we didn’t have computers.”

He does still have to rely on his colleagues, a team of four spotters who give him directions through hand signals and walkie-talkies.

After more than a day of set-up, Hough’s big moment came Thursday morning just before 10 o’clock. Workers removed the ladder Hough uses to reach the cab. The crane tilted and turned and the first 150-foot-long girder dangled in the air.

When it set it into place, roughly eight stories up, Hough leaned back, took off his cap, wiped his brow and smiled.

“I’ve been doing this for 29 years, and I still look forward to every job I do,” he said.

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I hope you enjoyed this weeks throw-back story. Join me next time for another blast from the past. Meanwhile, share in the comments below, what is your most memorable moment in your career?
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