Mike Reid, Crane Operator
When it comes to the Anderson Lucchetti Women’s and Children’s Center construction site, Mike Reid is the guy with the big picture. That’s because Reid is the man who sits 262 feet above the action in the south-end tower crane, moving bundles of rebar, steel walls for casting cement and, in a few months, the steel sections that will form the skeleton of the new acute-care facility at 29th and L streets.
“I’ve got to watch everything and everybody,” he says. “If the signal man gives me the order to ‘go on up,’ and I see someone’s hand in the way or someone is in my path, I won’t move the load. They’re not seeing the big picture.”
Reid works in one of two tower cranes that are essential in building the eight-story Women’s and Children’s Center. These are structures made out of the strongest steel in order to support the counter-weight on the back that weighs in excess of 100,000 pounds, plus any load placed on the jib, which can lift upwards of 80,000 pounds. These tower cranes are a brand-new design and are the first ones being used in the United States that were made here, he said. The second crane, located on the northeast corner, is the tallest-allowed free-standing tower crane at 289 feet.
Every workday, Reid, 52, takes 15 minutes to climb up the 250-plus ladder rungs to his cab on top, which has electronic controls and a walkie-talkie system, is air-conditioned and outfitted with a comfortable, cushy chair – items he didn’t have when he first started out 35 years ago.
He began his career as a crane operator when he was 17 years old, loading Japanese log ships in Alaska. At first, he worked on the ship, and once a crane operator swung a load of logs right at Reid and he had to run for dear life. After jumping to safety, he looked up and the crane operator was laughing.
“I decided right then and there that I was going to be the type of crane operator that guys on the ground aren’t afraid to work under,” Reid said.
Reid is all business, but still has a good sense of humor. His best attribute, he said, is that he has a calm head. “My motto is to be happy and don’t lose my temper. Yelling isn’t conducive to this job.”
Reid has worked every type of crane and is licensed for them all. For the past 11 years, he has been operating tower cranes in Northern California. He says many people think he gets paid “a ton” for his job, but admits that the electricians and plumbers on the construction sites are usually making more than he is.
Each of the cranes will be manned by its own operator, and the operators personalize them for their comfort by adding a little shelving and bringing up radios and other personal items. Reid makes sure he has reading material – on his shelf was a Ken Follett novel – because, he says, “You’d go crazy all alone here if you just contemplated life all the time.”
He stays up there for the full eight-hour workday … which will lengthen to 10 hours when steel erection begins. That means he brings up everything he needs for the day, including lunch, and uses a gallon jug as his bathroom.
Then, at the end of the day, he takes another 15 minutes to get down. “My job is constant concentration. At the end of the day, I’m as tired as the laborer down there,” he says, pointing to the construction workers below. “It’s all from concentrating, what you might call multi-tasking. But I really do enjoy operating a crane.”
