Kobelco crawlers for UK nuclear power station

Four new Kobelco G2 Series crawler cranes have been supplied to BYLOR for construction of the UK’s Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. BYLOR is a Bouygues TP and Laing O’Rourke joint venture company, the main civils contractor at the power plant in Somerset, UK.

The cranes are a 100 tonne capacity CKE900G-2 and three CK800G-2s, which lift 80 tonnes at 3.0 metres radius. Power is from Stage IV/Tier 4 Final diesel engines.

Alain Mazzia, BYLOR equipment and operations lead. “BYLOR will be delivering over 40 major structures across the project and the cranes will be extensively used as our programme intensifies.”

Commenting on the deal, Mark Evans Kobelco European sales manager, said, “Kobelco Cranes is extremely pleased to have been selected as the supplier of crawler cranes for this landmark project, and we look forward to a long and very successful relationship with BYLOR.”

Since Hinkley Point C received full approval towards the end of 2016, enabling works for the main construction phase have proceeded well, Kobelco said. The new cranes will be used to lift steel sections and other materials throughout the build programme.

Hinkley Point C’s two EPR reactors will have the capacity to produce 3,200 MW of electricity, enough to power six million homes, or 7% of UK demand.