2022 – The Dance of the Boom Lifts

……………………………………………….(Ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on June 22, 2022)

 

They go by lots of names, including – and inaccurately – “cherrypicker”. I think these ones are officially called “telescopic boom lifts”.

Here are 4 of them, as seen from my living room (click to enlarge):

 

With all the construction going on around here over the last few years, I’ve seen enough of them. Now 4 more have shown up: 2 for an old county-owned apartment building on the right and 2 for a new residential building that opened last year on the left.

Why?

I would guess that the old building needs to have pointing work done, but what would a brand-new building need?

I have no idea, but I like to photograph these machines at work, at rest and in unusual juxtapositions.

90-95% of the time, I have the luxury of doing so from my living room, so it’s a good, lazy shoot that’s been going on for about a month so far, with “Old” starting about 2 weeks before “New”. And – obviously – I can only see 2 sides of each building from here.

The only presentation option available to me is sequence. I can tell you what I think might be going on in the pictures, but if that’s boring, just look at the pix.

 

The work at “Old” began on May 23 when I noticed the second lift being offloaded, brought onto the property and spooned with the first one:

 

The next day, measurements were taken and walls were inspected. Grinding at ground level began 2 days after that:

 

These 2 pix show how wall work was done where fire escapes exist:

 

I’m guessing loose mortar was being blasted out and new material was brushed on:

 

Interesting (?) cross:

 

Water?

 

June 5: “New’s” 2 lifts arrive and get right to work:

 

3 days later…………up and down on one side of the building, working together around the corner on another side and parked for the night (buckets view only):

 

One from each of the next 2 days on New:

 

I finally went outside………..couldn’t see these 2 parked ones from home (click first one to enlarge):

 

Went home and took these 2 of Old:

 

Couldn’t figure out where on the property those 2 in the last shot were parked, so I walked over and took this shot:

 

Next day (Sunday) – walked over to NEW and took these close and closer PANO shots (click to enlarge):

 

Monday – lunch at Old:

 

Later, I took a walk over to Old to find out why I couldn’t see either lift. Looks like they were getting friendly on the sidewalk:

Somebody gave me a hard time about taking pictures there. I pointed to the tape (“Look which side I’m on”).

While I was over there, I asked someone who seemed to be in charge exactly what type of work was being done on both buildings.

Old: “Pointing” (I guessed right!)

New: “Window caulking” (On a brand-new building?)

Apparently, the same company was doing both jobs. I’m curious as to how the old County-owned building hooked up with the privately-owned new building (or vice versa) to get one company to work both buildings simultaneously. How does THAT happen?

 

Back to our show……….

 

June 17 (Old) – Compacted lift, instructions, ready for takeoff, on the roof fixing every last brick, colorful V formation:

 

June 17 (New) – Is that a caulking gun in the second pic?

 

June 18 (New – 12:14am) Moonrise:

 

June 18 (Old) – Parallel Lines (1978 Blondie!)

 

June 18 (Old) Irish flag? (Green and orange and white in the middle)

 

June 18 (Old) – Done for the day (click to enlarge):

 

June 18 (New) – Wrapping up for the day:

(click last one to enlarge)

 

June 19 (Old) – Children’s and adults’ colorful play areas:

 

June 19 (Old) – Secret admirer and topping off:

 

June 20 – (Old & New) All 4 in the sun (click to enlarge):

This pic suffers from wide-angle-itis………the only thing that isn’t a bit tilted in one direction or the other (look at Manhattan!) is the yellow building in the middle.

 

 

So the work continues, but unless something really different presents itself, I think I’m done.

Thanks if you made it all the way to the end.

 

In other good news: I think I’m finally over the stretched-out vehicles phase (but no guarantees).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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