Now that the cranes are installed, Marriott's development partners say they are making the final push to complete excavation by the end of July. Hauling out the soil is a major contributor to the high truck traffic to and from the site pedestrians and drivers have had to deal with early on in the project. The partners also expect the bulk of nighttime utility work to be completed by the end of next month, as well, weather permitting. However, they are again reminding residents that Pepco has a separate, ongoing project in the area, which is unrelated to the Marriott construction.
Photos taken Friday evening. Why did it take nearly three days to post these?
ReplyDelete5:16: Incorrect. The cranes hadn't been installed yet on Friday evening, dumbass.
ReplyDeleteIt’s odd that the northern tower crane doesn’t seem tall enough to build a 21 story office tower, which will be 295’ plus a very tall penthouse. I bet that the DC area has lots of the mid-height tower cranes available to build the lower height buildings in DC, so maybe for now they use a cheaper one to build the base. At some point they will need to extend one crane or replace it with a much taller version that can grow as the building gets taller. These are called jumper cranes that can insert internal sections and grow in height. These taller cranes will also need to be used at the Wilson, Elm and Avocet Towers as well.
ReplyDeleteThese taller buildings are quite a bit taller than the 11 story offices and multifamily residential towers you see all over DC due to the Height Ordinance.
I image the crane at the nearby JBG Smith multifamily residential tower will come down soon as they seem to be close to being topped out. I read somewhere that to rent and operate these cranes cost about $250,000 per crane for the duration of the construction.
Are they Manitowoc Cranes?
ReplyDelete6:39
ReplyDeleteI was under the impression that these are self-erecting cranes that would grow with the building. I don't think any contractor would install free-standing tower cranes 400' above the floor of the excavation pit. At that height they would probably become unstable.
The cranes that were installed, and those at the Elm and Wilson do not have the self-erecting mechanisms in place. They are not (yet) equipped with the 20’ tall mechanism where new tower sections are hoisted and slid in, then hydraulic ramps jack up the boom, cab and counterweights to a higher level. It’s actually quite clever. Perhaps they will need to be modified once the buildings are taller. And yes, most cranes over a certain height need to be braced by the building.
ReplyDeleteIt just seems odd to me that they don’t put the self-erecting mechanism in now, because they will have to remove and replace all the upper portions to do so.
It’s fun to see all this construction activity in town. Not great to live next to one of these site for two years during demo, excavation and construction. But as they say, you need to break a few eggs to make an omelet...
9:49
ReplyDeleteAppreciate for the explanation. By my count, there are now eight cranes up in Bethesda.
Four at the Carr building/Red-Purple Line connection, two at Marriott, and two at 7900 Wisconsin. My guess is that the Avocet building adds two more, and the Equity and ZOM projects between Arlington and Woodmont add one each. By then the cranes at 7900 would have come down.
So an eventual net of twelve. Not bad for a supposedly "moribund" economy.
Agreed! Good to see all the activity.
DeleteHopefully all of the office workers will jumpstart at least the weekday evening nighttime economy. I think we can all agree that Bethesda nightlife is indeed moribund. Our reputation has declined quite a bit in the past decade.
Most folks outside of Bethesda view our nightlife as an older, inferior Arlington.
10 years ago, Bethesda had larger crowds and even lines to get into some bars.
11:08AM it's a hole in ground. And you want Scorsese?
ReplyDeleteHere's the scene:
ReplyDeleteRob Dyer, blogger and food critic extraordinaire, needs to get in on the Marriott construction story. The project is well underway and its time to get some hard hitting shots of that bad boy (or girl) construction site. He walks around the perimeter but there just isn't a great view to be found. Maybe he needs to get a stick to put the camera on or a drone. Just as he's giving up and heading to the 7-11 for dinner... It hits him. He can get sick shots from the parking garage across the street. "No local journalist can match this hustle", he quietly thinks to himself while clenching his fists. He scooped them again.
Fin
2:19pm we've one upped Dyer with our air conditioned view of the construction site within our offices. And the construction management team in the cubicle next door.
DeleteFin