ON THE JOB: A DO-IT-ALL MACHINE FOR A FLORIDA SHIPYARD
About 40 minutes from St. Augustine, a Link-Belt Cranes 100-ton 100 | RT rough terrain crane is a mainstay at St. Johns Shipbuilding in Palatka, Florida. Specializing in shipbuilding and marine repair of aluminum and steel vessels such as supply boats, barges and ferries, St. Johns operates an 850-ton dry dock, a 400-foot launch basin and two rail launch systems. The addition of the 100 | RT to the St. Johns fleet has been a gamechanger, according to operator Robert“ Bert” Thorn, assisting daily with heavy lifts of all kinds across the 98-acre shipyard. He added that the rough terrain crane handles picks involving various fabrication parts, including bulkheads, deck plates and other modules. Additionally, Thorn noted that the 100 | RT is easy to maneuver throughout the yard’ s confined spaces.
2026, the outlook for the rough terrain crane market remains strong, supported by continued investment across infrastructure, energy and utility sectors,” he said.
“ North America continues to be the biggest and strongest market for rough terrain cranes, where aging infrastructure at airports, highways, bridges, water plants and more are driving the need for upgrades,” Bair continued.“ There is also the ongoing expansion of data centers, warehouses and industrial facilities that are sustaining high demand.”
“ The current state of the rough terrain market continues to show a positive trend and should meet or slightly exceed the previous year’ s
performance in 2026,” said Dan Melnyk, vice president of mobile crane sales- North America at Tadano.“ The market continues to see solid demand for over 100-ton capacity rough terrain cranes. At the same time, capacities in highest demand are in the 130- and 160-ton segments with AI data center and semiconductor chip plant builds, and infrastructure projects related to oil and gas, driving growth.”“ We see solid growth in the rough terrain market, but nothing explosive, mainly due to availability and tariff issues that are affecting a lot of manufacturers,” said Brian Smoot, director / general manager
The Tadano fully electric 100-ton EVOLT eGR-1000XLL-1 rough terrain crane is powered by a 226-kilowatt-hour lithiumion battery that enables up to seven hours of lifting, or a typical work cycle of five hours of lifting plus 5.5 miles of travel on a single charge.
www. contractorshotline. com October 2, 2026 7