New tower ladders for Chicago (more)

updated photos of the three new E-ONE tower ladders for Chicago (so 139729, 139730, 139731)

E-ONE photo

E-ONE fire truck being built

E-ONE photo

Tags: Chicago orders E-ONE tower ladders, E-ONE Cyclone II tower ladder, fire trucks being built for Chicago

This entry was posted on January 2, 2016, 2:00 PM and is filed under Fire Department News, Fire Truck photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

17 Comments

#1 by Brian on January 6, 2016 - 7:23 PM

I heard the same thing Rusty mentioned about Rosenbauer.
#2 by Rusty on January 6, 2016 - 5:44 PM

Bill you are exactly right on that. They can give it to a single manufacturer but three separate bids would be nice. Like FDNY did on towers to Seagrave, aerial ladders to Ferrara, pumpers KME. Also, the whole Rosenbauer delay is from Fleet not Rosenbauer. After agreeing to Commander chassis on the bid Fleet wanted Spartan chassis. Legal said to build them to bid specs.
#3 by Eric Haak on January 6, 2016 - 4:56 PM

Does anyone know who is going to do the numbering? Will it be the place that on 43rd Street between Ashland and Packers or will it be done someplace else? These look like they are real close to being delivered. Just wondering if they will be numbered at the factory or at a secondary location.
#4 by Marty Coyne on January 6, 2016 - 10:58 AM

Bill, or the city wants to look like it’s doing something but knows this convoluted contract will delay things for years…
#5 by Brian on January 6, 2016 - 8:50 AM

Fleet having a huge say in the process is a major part of the “problem or delay”
#6 by Bill Post on January 6, 2016 - 1:39 AM

Here is some interesting news that I have regarding the city ordering new rigs. In the city’s official buying plan which is good from the 4th quarter of 2015 till the 1st quarter of 2017, they have officially listed plans to send out for bidding during the 2nd quarter of 2016, crew cab/chassis with a 100-foot aerial ladder, crew cab/chassis with an aerial tower, and crew/cab chassis with a triple-combination pumper. The contract is expected to last for 60 months or 5 years.
Translated, the city wants to be able to send out bids on a single contract for ladders, towers and engines which will be good for 5 years.
It’s good news that the city has plans to order new rigs, however it sounds like the City will be asking too much on a single contract. Up until now when Chicago or for that matter most other cities order fire apparatus, they order separate types of Apparatus on separate contracts.
It only will complicate things immensely to have all three types of apparatus on the same contract. It’s sometimes difficult enough to order and spec one type of rig.
Do you remember when Chicago had ordered the last batch of SpartanErv ladders on the previous contract? It took over a year to finally agree on the contract as the city had to bid it three separate times since for one reason or another they weren’t happy with the final bids.
Just look at how long it is taking to get the 2-piece Snorkel/squads from Rosenbauer. You see what I mean. Chicago is only asking for trouble bidding on three types of apparatus on the same contract. It is wiser to bid separate contracts for each type of apparatus like Chicago and other fire departments have always done it.
#7 by Marty Coyne on January 5, 2016 - 8:28 AM

Long past time to stop running the Towers on A&A calls. They are too expensive, too few and being the largest heaviest rigs in the city get beat up the worst on our crappy streets.
#8 by Westside on January 5, 2016 - 3:31 AM

well if you count most fires for a Tower, its TL34 then TL14 then TL39. rumor mill says TL34 will not get a brand new one since their Pierce was wrecked after only a few years. (but thats all rumors) TL10 runs a ton but all BS for the most part. what would make sense for all would be to give the new ones to Towers who have a Pierce, then hand down those to 34, 39, & either 21 or 37. no matter what, the city needs to buy 5 more at least.
#9 by Bill Post on January 3, 2016 - 8:07 PM

When it comes to figuring out the busiest fire companies (including Tower Ladders) there are several different ways of breaking down the numbers.
1. You can go by the companies that get the most amount of alarms or “runs” or
2. You can go by the companies that work the most amount of hours which can be translated to the most amount of working fires as opposed to runs.
3. You can also go by which Tower Ladder actually uses it’s Tower Ladder the most.
I don’t know if anyone on this site has the latest annual run figures for last year because I don’t believe that those figures are that easy to come by.
It is much easier to get the run downs for the New York City fire companies and they run with 61 Tower Ladders out of 143 Truck (Ladder companies). When they publish the annual “run” rundown for New York companies they break it down into several categories. For Ladder companies it is broken into
1. Runs
2. Workers
3. Occupied Structure Workers
4 All Hands fires or 10-75’s (The New York City Version of a Still and Box Alarm).
For Engine companies they also list the EMS runs that they went out on as the Ladder companies in New York don’t get dispatched on EMS runs as “first responders”.
#10 by Rich on January 3, 2016 - 4:49 PM

I was told that the top 5 busiest company’s get new rigs first. The top five engines, trucks,towers. But with tower 34 on it’s 4th or 5th tower now. Their also one of the top 5 busiest towers as well.
#11 by Seth on January 3, 2016 - 1:18 PM

Chicago doesn’t like midmounts, I guess? That bucket in front must make it difficult to spot on tall buildings.
- #12 by mike on January 3, 2016 - 6:49 PM
  
  I’m sure they do a fine job of spotting the rigs. Apparatus placement for first, second, third and fourth truck along with RIT are all spelled out in the policy.
#13 by Bill Post on January 3, 2016 - 12:51 PM

The question several of us have been asking will the new rigs go to directly to the oldest Tower Ladders in the city or will they be going in service at some of the companies with the newer Pierce’s from the early 2000’s and will the oldest rigs get assigned the Pierces as “hand me down” rigs?
#14 by Brian on January 3, 2016 - 12:02 PM

I was questioning the comment by Harry
#15 by Brian on January 2, 2016 - 10:03 PM

A good part of the city?
- #16 by Robert on January 3, 2016 - 11:06 AM
  
  The whole city. Everyone deserves new equipment. Only issue is not all the tower companies can get the new towers.
#17 by harry on January 2, 2016 - 7:04 PM

i like them i hope at least 1 of the 3 are in a good part of the city