Cheer above the causeway

5,000 Christmas lights adorn the top of a crane at a construction site at Rocky Point.

By THOMAS LAKE, Times Staff Writer
Published December 21, 2007

About 200 feet above the Courtney Campbell Causeway, Jimmie Lowrie, 30, adjusts a strand of christmas lights he strung atop the tower crane at Rocky Point. The constant, gusty winds play havoc with the Christmas light display.
	[Daniel Wallace | Times]

TAMPA -- Jimmie Lowrie works in an air-conditioned office surrounded by windows, and on a clear day he can see to Clearwater. He climbs more than a dozen ladders to reach his desk.

Lowrie runs a tower crane, nearly 200 feet above the Courtney Campbell Parkway, at the construction site for the new Westin high-rise at Rocky Point. He spends nine to 15 hours a day hoisting plywood, rebar and portable toilets. The crane shudders in high winds like a boat on a rough sea. He gets his lunch delivered: colleagues wire it to the end of a steel cable attached to the crane, which can lift up to 22,000 pounds - more than enough for a large cheesesteak.

Earlier this month, officials from the Hardin Construction Co., his employer, had an idea. They decided to turn the crane into a giant Christmas decoration. And they asked Lowrie to do the decorating.

So with help from project area superintendent Ben Williams, field coordinator Jon Orebaugh, foreman Heron Reyes, and plenty of zip ties and waterproof electrical tape, Lowrie spent about four hours over three afternoons stringing the top of the crane with nearly 5,000 lights.

The hardest part was putting the lights on the end of the jib, the long horizontal part of the crane. Lowrie had to put on a full-body safety harness and walk out on a narrow metal beam.

"Just like climbing on monkey bars when you were a kid," said Lowrie, 30, of Cross City. "Only a lot bigger."

The lights get their juice from a socket in the crane's cab, which runs off the main power grid. The men plugged them in after work one day when the sun was still up. They first saw them blazing over the causeway the next morning around dawn. A few commuters pulled over for a better look. When Lowrie reached the cab, he was greeted by a co-worker singing "O Christmas Tree" in a Spanish accent.

Now, when you come down the causeway in the dark, the top of the crane is an explosion of color in the sky. It seems to float in midair, like a low-hanging constellation.

Thomas Lake can be reached at tlake@sptimes.com or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245.

[Last modified December 20, 2007, 23:58:33]