A Hot day for Tree Maintenance!
January 2015 seen some scorching hot days and today was one of them. According to Sutherland Shire Council, this particular tree was one of the top 3 largest trees remaining in the Shire’s residential area. Sitting in the backyard of a densely populated area this old girl was causing quite a hazard with falling limbs and debris and it was not until the owner had his back shed crushed by a falling limb that the Council gave approval for the tree to be removed. This was quite a lucky day for the owner who said he was only in the shed 5 minutes before the branch crushed the thing.
Crane only just big enough
Access was a big issue for this job as the tree was in the backyard and the branches hung directly over the roofs of surrounding homes. On the street it was hard to set up the crane due to services and structures in unfavorable locations and even the massive 130 tonne crane had its work cut out for it. The crown of the tree was approximately 50 metres from the roadway meaning the crane boom arm was at absolute maximum extension. This caused some issues with lifting through the day as the sheer weight of the enormous tree structure was triggering overload sensors on the machine. The boys lost a couple of hours through the day, weighting for more counter weights to balance the crane, though things went smoother in the afternoon once they arrived. The job had poor pedestrian access to the back and the crane was also needed to lift the stump grinder into the backyard at the end of the day.
Proud and Professional Tree Loppers
The sheer heat and scale of the job meant that Ben and Luke had an exhausting day roping themselves and the saws around the tree, but they stayed alert and put safety first as always. Ben and Dave take great passion in teaching the younger members of the team the correct way of doing things and wont tolerate any complacency on the job.
The job took a little over a day to complete and the boys worked back closer to dark they are would have liked to. The team got a great deal of satisfaction out of the job as for most of them this was the largest tree they had handled to date and they know it probably will be the biggest they do for a while.
