Maxim Crane recalls 63-crane fleet behind Lucas Oil Stadium

Sixty-three cranes for one stadium: Maxim Crane looks back at the Lucas Oil Stadium build in Indianapolis

A new Maxim Crane Works case study revisits Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, where the rental company supplied 63 cranes of 15 to 300 tons capacity over a four-year build completed in 2008 under a retractable roof.

Lucas Oil Stadium was built between 2005 and 2008 for the Indiana Stadium and Convention Building Authority at a cost of roughly US$720 million. Hunt Construction Group of Indianapolis managed the build, assisted by local firms Smoot Construction and Mezzetta Construction, and retained Maxim Crane Works for all crane-related requirements on a jobsite that involved 19 contractors and dozens of trades, most of them from Central Indiana.

Sixty-three cranes from 15 to 300 tons

Spanning 1.8 million square feet and topped by a retractable roof, the stadium could not be built around a single machine or a single lift. Maxim supplied 63 cranes ranging from 15 to 300 tons capacity: 10 conventional crawler cranes, 30 all terrain and hydraulic truck cranes, 19 rough terrain cranes, a boom truck and three carry deck cranes. The mix gave crews the reach, capacity and manoeuvrability to work every corner of the site as the structure rose over the multi-year schedule.

As on its other stadium projects, Maxim operated and maintained the majority of the equipment itself, and supported the job with lift planning and engineering for its full duration.

18,000 labour hours, zero major incidents

The case study reports that Maxim’s crews completed more than 18,000 labour hours on the project without a major incident. The finished venue seats more than 67,000 fans, serves as home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts and hosts major events in downtown Indianapolis beneath its retractable roof.

For Maxim, the project stands as an early template for the large-fleet stadium work it has since repeated elsewhere — matching a broad range of machines to a long build, sequencing lifts among many trades, and keeping the safety record clean from groundbreaking to game day.