The Graystone tower crane is coming down currently.
That 17,300-pound weight to the left is to counterbalance the usual concrete weights on the back side of the transverse beam, so there will be no tilt when they remove a section on the vertical.After the crane lowers the counterweight, it comes back up to fetch the removed section, lowering it to the street and picking up the counterweight again. They rebalance so the cage can be slowly lowered to fit around the next section and then locked in place.
You might recall the crane that fell across Mercer Street in 2019. The winds became gusty while they were doing such a takedown; in a hurry, workers bypassed some stability safety measures. The lawsuits were settled for $150 million.
Thanks for the updates on this neighborhood project.