On October 8, 2024 the new Louisville VA Medical Center got its landmark. A crawler crane picked up the blue water tower tank with VA on the side, lifted it high over the site and set it down on top of its column beside the Watterson Expressway.
I was flying it for Walsh Construction as part of my monthly work on the VA site, and a lift like this is the kind of day that deserves its own coverage: the tank on the ground, the rigging, the climb, the slow set onto the column and the tower standing on its own afterwards.
The film
I cut the lift into a short film the same week.
From the ground to the top of the column
The morning started with the tank sitting on the ground next to its column and the crane, and crews rigging it for the pick.
Then the crane took it up, lifted it well above the column and brought it slowly back down onto the top.
These are short, silent clips straight from that morning:
The tower today
Two years later the water tower stands at the front of the finished campus, next to the storage tank, the pond and the roundabout.
Part of a bigger story
The water tower is one day out of four years I have spent over this site. See the whole build, with 27 monthly maps lined up on each other, in the new Louisville VA Medical Center, from graded dirt to hospital.
Filming a big lift
- I plan the flight around the lift plan and stay well clear of the crane and the load
- Photos and 4K video from several heights and angles, so the whole sequence is covered
- Delivered to the project team, ready for their updates, social media and marketing
If there is a crane pick, a topping out or another milestone coming up on your site, call or text (502) 387-1142, or see how construction progress video works.
Big lift coming up on your site?
I fly monthly and milestone progress for contractors, developers and owners across Kentucky and Southern Indiana. Send the site and the schedule and I will put together a plan and a quote.
