Bankok luffing in tight quarters

Thai Obayashi is using two Liebherr luffing jib tower cranes to build a 33-storey tower block in Bangkok's central business district.

The Thailand-based contractor has installed two 125 HC-L 6/12 Lironic tower cranes on the site which is being carried out on a compact 0.8 hectare plot. The site is bounded on two sides by high rise buildings and on the other two sides by busy streets.

Designed by Palmer and Turner (Thailand) Ltd, Park Ventures will have a built area of 81,400 m² and is due for completion in September 2011.

Both 125 HC-L 6/12's are configured with a 1.6 x 1.6 m mast. This being the smaller of the options available to enable operation within the structure of the building. One of the cranes has been located in a lift shaft, while the other is in the lift lobby. They will rise with the building to an eventual height of about 150 m.

The cranes, which are supplying all the lifting duties to the site, have a maximum lifting capacity of 12 tonnes and a maximum radius of 50 m. As they can operate at raised jib angles of 15 to 70 degrees, overflying of streets and the nearby Skytrain is avoided.

This was the first time Thai Obayashi had purchased Liebherr tower cranes. They were bought through Liebherr's Thai distributor STIT Company Ltd. "This was a major decision for Thai Obayashi, as it means a lot of retraining and changes to their spare parts inventory," said Sompoch Rattana Areeyagon, STIT deputy managing director.