Syracuse, N.Y. -- Syracuse’s new Carrier Dome roof will require the university to use one of the country’s biggest cranes, stationing it on campus through January.

Syracuse Vice President and Chief Facilities Officer Pete Sala said the crane’s boom will be more than 500 feet long, more than four times the current height of the Carrier Dome. He said the current roof rises approximately 120 feet into the air.

Jim Jatho, a heavy lift and rigging planner with Buckner Heavylift Cranes, said the main boom on the LR-11000 crane measures 217 feet. An attached jib measures 295 feet.

“It’s going to dominate the skyline,” Jatho said. “If you can see the Carrier Dome, it’ll be a couple hundred feet above it.”

By the time the crane is completely built, it will have taken between 85 and 87 truck loads to bring all of the pieces to Syracuse. Manufactured by Liebherr, a German crane company, it can lift 1,100 tons and will weigh 3 million pounds. It will take multiple weeks, and the power of multiple other cranes, just to build the LR-11000.

The massive crane will be key to erecting the crown-truss that will eventually support the Carrier Dome’s new roof. Sala said he expects the crown-truss to be completed by January.

Syracuse is renting the equipment from Buckner Heavylift Cranes, a company located in North Carolina. Buckner will have a supervisor in Syracuse to oversee its use.

“Putting that one crane together is going to take three or four other cranes,” Sala said. “It’s one of the biggest cranes in the United States. ... There’s a crane ... on the other side of the building. That is a massive, massive crane as well. We’ve kind of downplayed that one. To see a crane that big put another crane together is pretty funny."

Twenty-one trucks have already arrived, carrying parts of the crane’s boom. The cab and the tracks of the crane will arrive Tuesday morning on over-sized flat-bed trucks. They will arrive at 4 a.m., complete with a police escort, to limit traffic issues.

Pieces of the crane that will be used to construct the Carrier Dome roof sit outside the building. The crane, one of the biggest in the United States, will be constructed over the next few weeks.

“They’re over-sized so in order for them to get them up here, we’re bringing them in very early in the morning,” Sala said. “It’ll take weeks for us to assemble that crane. There’s probably another 60 tractor-trailer loads of crane parts yet to show up.”

The crane needs to be that big so that it can construct the ring-truss over half of the Carrier Dome without changing its position. Sala said he hopes to have the crane built by mid-August and it is scheduled to remain in place through January, located in a fenced-in area across the street from Dineen Hall that the university has specially prepared to hold the weight.

Jatho said there are 13 LR-11000 cranes in the United States. He said Buckner owns 12 of them.

The rare crane was necessary, he said, because of the combination of height and reach needed, combined with the tight spacing around the Carrier Dome. Along with its substantial size, the crane required a heavy counter-balance to eliminate any risk of tipping over.

“Putting a crane of this size in a space so small is almost unheard of,” Jatho said.

Among other projects, the machinery is frequently used by companies building wind turbines.

Sala held a brief press conference on Monday with reporters to discuss the arriving machinery, which isn’t the only sign of work being done around the building, although it will certainly be the largest.

Portions of the Carrier Dome are currently surrounded by chain-link fencing and construction screening, and signage includes a rendering of the Carrier Dome with the words “coming soon.”

A rendering of the Carrier Dome renovation is featured on signage outside the building, where construction is currently taking place.

As Sala spoke for 15 minutes with reporters, construction workers with the Local 60 Ironworkers worked through the rain on Monday putting together X-Bracing out of structural steel, which will help the Carrier Dome’s current structure support the weight of the crown-truss roof.

Sala said to accommodate the construction there will be some small changes to how fans navigate and enter the building during football season. He expects to address those changes in greater detail before the Orange opens its football season against Clemson on Sept. 14.

“There will be a little bit of a difference," Sala said. “We’re going to go through that. We’ll have you guys up before the Clemson game ... because there are going to be some changes.”

Sala said the project remains on schedule. Syracuse has said the roof replacement will be completed by 2020, along with the addition of a vertically-hung scoreboard, sound and lighting systems. Other amenities, such as air conditioning, improved concessions and restrooms are scheduled to be completed by 2022.

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