Steeple soars skyward

Roughly 40 feet tall and weighing 30,000 pounds, the replacement steeple for LeSueur River Lutheran Church lifted off the pavement where it had been constructed and moved directly to the place it belonged, easily 80 feet above the ground atop the church’s bell tower the morning of Thursday, Aug. 14.

 

The bell, which weighs 1,250 pounds, had arrived in its space only shortly before.

The lifting and placing were accomplished in less than two hours’ time using a Grove GMK 5150 crane supplied by Meyerhofer Crane and Rigging Services out of Grand Meadow, Minn. According to Jason Ree with Meyerhofer, the GMK 5150 has about 200 feet of boom and is capable of lifting 165 U.S. tons of weight. Purchase price for a similar vehicle, he suggests, would be about $2 million.

 

The crane was operated by a crew of three, and also arrived in a caravan of three vehicles: the GMK 5150 driving independently and two semis. One semi carried pallet-sized metal plates which provided a secure base for stabilizing extensions on the crane. The other bore two specially shaped counterweights to be attached near the base of the crane’s extendable boom. All of the plates and weights could be moved only with a forklift.

The vast majority of the crane’s time on site was spent setting up for the lifts, or waiting while workers took care of transitional tasks.

 

According to Ree, the crane had come from Rochester, where it had been used to remove storm-damaged trees from on top of structures and from confined spaces. When it finished the morning’s work, it went on to Austin, where it is being used to facilitate a roof replacement.

 

About 50 spectators, a few comfortably seated in lawn chairs, gathered along the roadway both east and west of the church to observe the process.

 

Carpenters and a welder from Rocon Construction of Owatonna, the company which built the bell tower and steeple, mingled themselves throughout the process, including making preparations before the crane arrived, helping with various elements of the lifting, and then stabilizing the steeple once it was in place.

 

Because the reconstructed steeple was required to comply with current building codes, it had metal structures inside. Rocon workers set to work welding the newly arrived metal beams to those installed in the bell tower within a few moments of being sure everything was straight. Rocon staff had been moving up and down using aerial construction lifts since about 7 a.m., ensuring things were ready.

 

Church member and the congregation’s coordinator for the project is Jim Kortz. He and his wife Judy, a fellow church leader, were at the church bright and early on Thursday. “The morning of the steeple raising I had been on every floor of the church, from the basement to the bell tower. I was thinking about how long it took to get to this point. Then after the crane arrived, within two hours the bell was lifted into the tower and the steeple was in place.

 

“Even though there is finishing work to get done, the project feels complete. When we drove away from church that morning, we had to stop along the road and look at the steeple from a distance. It was so neat to see the landmark up there along the skyline. I think about how it feels to some of the life-long members of 90 years or more to see the steeple back in place; it may have been an emotional day for some.”