![\"Tower-cranes-location.machine.market\"](\"https:\/\/cranemarket.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Tower-cranes-location.machine.market-1.jpg\")
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And it has an 18-crane lead over second-place Los Angeles, according to Rider Levett Bucknall<\/a>, a firm that tracks crane counts across the world.<\/p>\n Seattle\u2019s crane count has grown 38 percent in the past year, creating a shortage of both cranes and operators. And while they\u2019re most tightly concentrated in downtown and South Lake Union, the cranes are soaring hundreds of feet above neighborhoods from Sodo to Fremont to the University District.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to ignore right now,\u201d said Julia Chamberlain, a local artist who was inspired by the boom to install a series of light-up mini-cranes in Westlake Park recently. \u201cThere used to be isolated pockets of them, but now it seems like the entire city is erupting.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The towering yellow construction equipment is the most visible sign of Seattle\u2019s ongoing makeover \u2014 for better or worse \u2014 as developers across the city continue to build apartment and condo buildings, new offices and hotels.<\/p>\n Just in downtown, the number of major buildings under construction\u00a0has quadrupled<\/a> in the last five years and is now at a 10-year high, while forecasts for future development indicate the frenzy won\u2019t be slowing anytime soon.<\/p>\n Cranes usually stay up for six to 18 months, depending on the job.<\/p>\n Tim O\u2019Neill, a project executive for Skanska<\/a>, which does major construction projects in Seattle and around the world, said the wait time for a crane locally is now eight months, about twice as long as normal.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t plan ahead, you\u2019re not going to end up with a crane,\u201d O\u2019Neill said. \u201cThat will cost everybody a whole bunch of money.\u201d<\/p>\n A crane can cost from $15,000 to $55,000 a month, depending on the model, and despite the boom those prices have only gone up a little, he said.<\/p>\n The many cranes punctuating the skyline don\u2019t simply move from one site to another. Each has to be sent back to the supplier after every use for testing, and the cranes around Seattle have come from across the country.<\/p>\n Taylor Mayfield, whose Mayfield Hoisting Service<\/a>\u00a0provides cranes and operators locally, said he\u2019s already taking reservations for projects that will need cranes next April.<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as they come down, they go right back up\u201d after testing, Mayfield said. \u201cSome of the ones you see on the skyline have already got contracts\u201d scheduled for their next job.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Some of the cranes are so close together, especially in downtown and South Lake Union, that crews now have to dance through a sort of synchronized crane ballet to avoid hitting one another with the long horizontal arms. Developers also have to secure air rights over other buildings and coordinate with the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees flight paths.<\/p>\n Matt Haider, a crane operator for five years, lifts a hopper of concrete onto a building under construction on Dexter Avenue North, in Seattle\u2019s South Lake Union area. He sometimes works more than 60 hours a week and spends his entire day in the cab 185 feet above the ground. It shakes like a rickety subway car as he pivots, and on windy days, it\u2019s harrowing. (Ellen M. Banner\/The Seattle Times)<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cYou do have to be careful,\u201d said local crane operator Matt Haider, whose current job in South Lake Union is across the street from two other cranes. \u201cEspecially downtown, it\u2019s super tight on some of those jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond the physical impact of the cranes and the related construction work \u2014 thousands of new housing units and jobs, plus temporary headaches for anyone navigating past the numerous building sites \u2014 they\u2019ve come to symbolize how the city is changing.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what inspired Chamberlain to come up with her crane art display after the Downtown Seattle Association put out a call to fund new public art.<\/p>\n It features a dozen colorful light-up cranes affixed to trees 11 feet in the air, poised above visitors eating lunch or playing games.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to do something that was really Seattle and represented where the city was at right now,\u201d said Chamberlain, who grew up in the area. \u201cThey\u2019re these temporary visitors to the city that brings about this change,\u201d she said, \u201cin good ways and bad ways.\u201d<\/p>\n In some spots near downtown, it\u2019s possible to spin around and see a dozen or more cranes. From certain vantage points, they sometimes frame the view of the Space Needle. They\u2019re one of the first things people see when entering Seattle, whether by freeway or ferries.<\/p>\n Haider, who\u2019s currently a crane operator for a mixed-use building near Facebook\u2019s new outpost on Dexter Avenue North, grew up in the area and has had a unique vantage point in his cab above the city to see the transformation.<\/p>\n \u201cComing down to Seattle now, it\u2019s like a totally different place,\u201d Haider said. \u201cDriving through downtown with all the high-rises going up, it\u2019s definitely turning into a big-city feel. And it changes every day.\u201d<\/p>\n The Rider Levett Bucknall data, which looks at all tower-crane types, doesn\u2019t go back far enough to show whether Seattle has surpassed its crane count during the last building boom, in the middle of last decade. But there was a\u00a0crane shortage then<\/a>, too. There\u2019s also no data to know whether Seattle had ever previously been the nation\u2019s crane leader.<\/p>\n Compared to a year ago, Seattle gained 16 cranes, while the average U.S. city lost two, although much of that drop occurred in New York, which had led the country in crane counts last year.<\/p>\n The majority of the tall buildings going up in Seattle are for apartments and condos, though office buildings for Amazon and other companies, as well as a few hotels, are also under construction. Sometimes big public-works projects require cranes, too.<\/p>\n A crane could be required for buildings as small as seven stories \u2014 though for high-rises, some wind up rising 600 feet or more in the air. Some jobs even require multiple cranes.<\/p>\n Seattle isn\u2019t the only local city building up: As of the beginning of this year, there were about 20 cranes on the Eastside, according to Rider Levett Bucknall.<\/p>\n In Bellevue, developers launched 29 projects requiring cranes from 2013 to 2015 after having only 11 in the previous two years, according to city officials. Bellevue spokesman Brad Harwood said the current boom has lasted longer than the previous construction surge before the recession.<\/p>\n But there are signs the boom is starting to at least level off. Seattle has lost two cranes from the skyline compared to earlier this year, and Bellevue so far this year has added only two new projects requiring cranes.<\/p>\n And Seattle still has a long way to go to get to the top of the global crane standings. Internationally, cities tracked by Rider Levett Bucknall that have far more cranes than Seattle include Toronto; Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in Australia; and Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the Middle East.<\/p>\n Mike Rosenberg: mrosenberg@seattletimes.com<\/a> or 206-464-2266; on Twitter @ByRosenberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Seattle is \u2014 for the moment, at least \u2014 the tower crane capital of America. As the city transforms with taller and taller buildings, Seattle this summer had 58 construction cranes reshaping the skyline \u2014 more than any other city in the country, according to recent data. The Seattle Times\u00a0reports the city has more tower […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":""},"categories":[2,3,6,12],"tags":[1038,1376,1533],"yoast_head":"\nWait times rising<\/h2>\n
![\"tower-crane-operator-seattle-1\"](\"https:\/\/cranemarket.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/tower-crane-operator-seattle-1.jpg\")
Symbols of change<\/h2>\n
16 more than 2015<\/h2>\n