STATE FOCUS | FLORIDA In January this year, EFI completed the
installation of a 100t, 128ft bridge crane for Blue Origin. The system was installed as a complete, high-capacity lifting solution with full bay coverage, and was created to provide support long-term operation with enhanced reliability. The installed crane provides 40ft of lift and incorporates huge 75,000lbs boxed girders. Its purpose is to enable safe and precise handling of critical aerospace components. This $1.8m turnkey crane system was engineered and executed to meet the client’s stringent performance and reliability requirements in an industry that sets the bar extremely high. The system, fully engineered and fabricated by EFI for high-capacity, demanding duty cycles, was entirely built and assembled at EFI’s facility in Cocoa. The company’s activity is not, however,
limited to local operations in the state, or to just one industry. In late 2025, it delivered 30t, 38ft gantry cranes for the Tenkiller Dam in Oklahoma. Designed and built at the Cocoa facility, the cranes will play an essential role in critical rehabilitation work at the dam, which will require high-precision handling of heavy components, structural assemblies and
equipment required during extensive repair and refurbishment operations. EFI also created a 60t bridge crane to the Coolidge Dam in Arizona in 2025, as part of a major project to remove and replace the dam’s internal cylinder gates. The system created for the dam, which is almost 100 years old, required delicate and precise engineering to ensure crane loads were distributed only to designated areas of the bridge, and avoided any overloading of the historic structure.
J Herbert is another major player in the Florida crane and hoist market. Based in Kissimmee, FL, it specialises in the manufacture and installation of industrial overhead cranes, and its most recent projects include the delivery of a 10t, 100ft span crane and 2t overhead cranes to a project in Orlando, and a 15t, 44ft monorail crane with a 24ft span for a tandem Harrington hoist. Konecranes is a key provider of overhead crane maintenance, repairs and installations of jib cranes and hoist equipment for manufacturing and logistics facilities in the Tampa/St Petersburg and Orlando areas. From its base in Tampa, the company is a key player in major projects across central and southern Florida. RJ Mack Company, based in Jacksonville, is also busy installing
heavy-duty bridge cranes up to 150t capacity for industrial manufacturing projects across north Florida.
Powering through the headwinds With its long coastline facing the Atlantic Ocean, Florida is no stranger to stormy weather. Since 1850, all of Florida’s coastline has been impacted by at least one hurricane, according to the Florida Climate Center, which notes that the southeast coastline is extremely susceptible to a land-falling hurricane. Indeed, the state experiences more hurricanes overall than any other part of the US, with a total of 120 making landfall between 1851 to 2022. Floridians are, therefore, built to withstand the heavy weather, and the same is true of the economic headwinds with which the state is struggling. The state – like many other parts of the US and many countries in Europe – is wrestling with a growing high cost of living crisis, skyrocketing property insurance premiums – which are in many cases triple the national average – and rents that are rising faster than wages.
For those not renting, the cost of buying a house is also rising, and housing affordability is
44 Spring 2026 |
ochmagazine.com
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