TCNA success in Nashville

Jesse Callahan, shareholder at legal firm May Potenza Baran & Gillespie, explaining the borrowed servant concept at TCNA 2024. Photo: Alex Dahm/KHL

Tower Cranes North America in Nashville, Tennessee, USA on 12 June went off without a hitch and to great acclaim from the record crowd of close to 300 attendees.

Feedback on the event was overwhelmingly positive from delegates, speakers and sponsors alike.

Following an opening address from Joel Dandrea, chief executive at SC&RA, TCNA’s exclusive event partner, TCNA 2024 got underway witht the keynote presentation from Sam Moyer, general manager at All Tower Crane. He gave his carefully considered take on how the industry is evolving and what is helping to shape its future. Much of the work for tower cranes at the moment is coming from projects to construct privately funded healthcare facilities and student accommodation for the education sector. Ongoing data centre construction is also good for all types of crane rental.

Into the details

Technical presentations covered how to prepare cranes for bad weather and the pros and cons of steel versus synthetic fibre for hoisting applications. A panel discussion about erecting, reconfiguring and dismantling tower cranes drew lots of questions from the audience. It highlighted just how important it is to gain experience in such operations and to closely follow the correct procedures.

A site report from Pedro Alonso at Espamex gave interesting insight into efficiencies achieved on the project to construct the spectacular 475 metre Rise Tower in Mexico. Among many other things, Alonso highlighted the value of working as closely as possible with the project developer from the earliest possible stage to maximise the potential of the craneage.

In the afternoon two sesssions focused on legal aspects of legal contracts and crane accident compensation claims. Both were well presented with clear takeaways for crane-owners, primarily how important it is to ensure you have correctly worded contracts making it clear who has responsibility for the cranes on a project.

A second project report in the afternoon detailed the fascinating story of the Crazy Horse memorial project in South Dakota. Having already been under construction for decades using a lot of manual labour, a tower crane is now being brought in to accelerate the project which is to carve an entire mountain into a memorial. It depicts Crazy Horse, or Tasunke Witco, a native American hero who stood up for his people against oppression in the 19th Century.

TCNA is organised by American Cranes & Transport and International Cranes and Specialized Transport magazines and their publisher KHL Group. Check back at www.craneandtransportbriefing.com for further updates.

Music City Center, Nashville, USA, home to TCNA 2024. Photo: Alex Dahm/KHL