Governor Tony Evers joined Manitowoc City officials, as well as representatives from Konecranes and Broadwind Heavy Industries yesterday (April 29th) just after 1:00 PM to celebrate the completion of the big blue crane at Broadwind.
The project was a team effort between many different organizations, which Steve Waisanen, the Vice President of Konecranes said was incredibly valuable to the job market both for the number of permanent positions created, but as well for the contracts.
“When you look at the equipment behind you, 90% of what you see there came from here. That’s quite significant,” Waisanen said. “50% of the sub-contracts that we did on this project were small business…from the state of Wisconsin.”
Governor Evers spoke about how the crane project is a testament to what can be achieved when people work together, calling it an “Inspiring achievement. Just being here has been inspiring for me, and I hope this project gets some well-deserved attention because projects like this…are critical for helping our state bounce back from the pandemic.”
Mayor Justin Nickels said it was “poetic” everyone was gathered in the space they were, and said without the river and Lake Michigan, Manitowoc would not exist as we know it today.
“When you look around the area, Burger Boat, it’s starting to build schooners here on the shores of Lake Michigan back in the 1840s and 50s,” Nickels said. “You look at this peninsula that built 28 submarines for WWII, and the thousands of men and women that were put to work to build a quality product that, as was mentioned, can go anywhere all around the world.”
Steve Waisanen confirmed that the crane is 100% complete, and the Navy is currently inspecting the massive structure. Once that process is complete, the crane will be loaded onto a barge and shipped away.
That is expected to take place within the next couple of weeks.
