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Glass Installation: Revolution Tower

Panama City, Panama

Contractors: Estructuras Y Remodelaciones 

Project Scope

Glass installation on both the vertical face and the underside of 48 projecting floor levels. 

Challenges

  • The only level landing surface existed at the 15th floor level.
  • The spiral configuration did not allow lowering the platform more than 2 stories from each rigging point and demanded that vertical moves be carried out with the use of transfer wires. Additionally, once the windows were installed at level, outriggers could no longer be installed at that level.
  • The contractor required a successful on-site trial run of Spider’s innovative, labor-intensive rigging plan.
  • Budget constraints did not allow for custom equipment design.
  • The tight 4-month project left little margin of error for delays.

Solution

In addition to ST-180 Electric Spider work baskets already in customer’s fleet, Spider rented a 40 ft (12.2 m) platform powered by two SC1000 electric hoists and equipped with two outrigger beams positioned one floor above the working floor level. A transfer wire was connected to the platform via a cross beam to facilitate moving from the underside area of the floor to the next vertical face. Spider trained the operators to transfer the hoists to the new suspension points in mid-air to move the platform into the next working position. The operators made a total of 192 mid-air transfers – 4 upward runs of the platform were required with 48 transfers per run.

Few projects ever require this quantity of mid-air transfer of a 40 ft (12.2 m) stage onto new suspension wires. Spider was onsite for the training and then the operators took over. Performing 192 mid-air transfers safely and without incident under time-pressured conditions demonstrates the quality of Spider’s training and our equipment, as well as the caliber of Estructuras y Remodelaciones’ project execution team.

Revolution Tower
Detail of modular platforms