CHICAGO, IL — The 85-ton Link-Belt 85|RT Rough Terrain Crane recently assisted in foundation construction work at the Barack Obama Presidential Library in Chicago, Illinois.
The 85|RT was purchased by W.E. O’Neil Construction of Chicago from Link-Belt distributor Stevenson Crane, Rigging & Heavy Haul of Bolingbrook, Illinois. The 85|RT was selected for the job site because of its capacities and maneuverability.
W.E. O’Neil Crane Operator Keith Gesiakowski said the 85|RT functioned flawlessly both when making required lifts and while navigating the busy job site.
“With the 85|RT, it engages right away,” Gesiakowski said. “I can set the controls to the speed that I want thanks to the fine metering controls available through the Pulse 2.0 display.”
He added that the crane’s controls are the smoothest he has seen in a long time, stating that the crane’s capacities sold themselves immediately while lifting and setting 5,000-pound steel bundles at a radius of 120 feet. He said the 85|RT’s Variable Confined Area Lifting Capacities (V-CALC), which allows the crane to be set up with an asymmetrical outrigger pattern, made it easy to place the crane into tight spaces on the site.
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“Being able to preview 360-degree real-time charts on the Pulse computer display was really helpful for setting the crane up to make lifts from confined areas,” Gesiakowski said of the 85|RT’s V-CALC mode.
He concluded by saying the 85|RT came to O’Neil packed with a lot of standard features like 142 feet of full-power grease-free main boom, a 20-degree tilting cab, a multi-view camera system, LED lights all around, and Link-Belt’s Pulse 2.0 RCL system.
Construction of the library on the 19.3-acre campus is scheduled to be complete and open to the public in the first half of 2026.
