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Mini Crane in downtown Toronto

Let be honest. Craning in the city can be a real pain some days, especially downtown Toronto. Welcome to College and Yonge, just north of the Eaton center. For this customer, it was a nightmare trying to get the city to allow him to replace his HVAC units. It was actually being called the impossible job, because the city would not allow them to do it. Unfortunately, for getting crane permits, the City of Toronto’s permit department does not care that you have no heat or A/C. That is considered your problem to solve. It just wants to make sure that things are done safely and that traffic is always moving unimpeded. It is up to you to come up with a solution that they can like, otherwise the answer is always, “No!”

Mini Crane HVAC unit in downtown Toronto
Mini Crane lifting HVAC unit and accessories in downtown Toronto

Getting a permit for this site was a real issue. While technically it would be an easy lift for most cranes, that wasn’t the issue. The city would not allow or give out a permit for a full size crane to deploy here. You cannot block street cars, traffic and people from moving through this area at any time of day. This is where mini cranes shine. They deploy in a smaller footprint then your traditional cranes and can squeeze and maneuver into tighter spaces.

Mini Crane HVAC unit in downtown Toronto
Mini Crane HVAC unit in downtown Toronto

The city would only give out permits, at certain times of day with low traffic and a plan with traffic management that shows how you are going to keep things flowing safely. As you can see from the pictures, this lift was done off hours, when traffic flow was low. A lane of traffic had to be open at all times and that lane had to be the one that the street cars travelled. There also had to be a pedestrian pathway through the work site, that could only be closed for the briefest intervals when no pedestrians were travelling through.

Mini Crane HVAC unit in downtown Toronto
Looking off the roof in downtown Toronto where we were craning.

Braymore has a reputation for problem solving difficult jobs.

Mini Crane HVAC unit in downtown Toronto
Mini Crane HVAC unit in downtown Toronto

Want to learn more?

Call our crane department at 416-900-0969 to talk to one of our crane specialists to see if one of our specialty cranes might be the right machine for your particular dilemma.

Or complete our webform to get a quote on renting it: Crane quote.