A commercial buck hoist , the exterior elevator ride crews take to a designated floor to set about working on a scheduled high-rise construction task, can bear loads of up to 8,000 pounds at a clip. About 40 people, gear, materials, etc. can ascend at rates of 300-feet per minute.
For 21 stories, for instance, a buck hoist travels upward 227.4 feet. This converts to about 46 seconds for the ascent. Now, imagine 30 workers--a mash-up of stacked crews of painters, flooring specialists, and interior finish technicians--herding into a buck hoist in a mad dash to wrap up work on the 21st floor of a residential tower.
On a good day, that would not be the best example of keeping a construction workflow staged, cadenced, and on schedule. Still, it's relatively common practice as job supervisors collide project work-streams as they desperately try to bring a building across the finish line relatively on time.
But that's not today. "This time's different" may be a refrain too often spoken. But this time is different.
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