Hong Kong housing lifts by Liebherr

Four Liebherr saddle jib tower cranes are on lifting duty at the twin-towered Hong Kong Housing Authority's latest public housing contract.

On the Yau Lai Estate, overlooking the Eastern Harbour Crossing, the 39 storey towers each include a basement car park and noise barriers. Main constructor for the twin towers project, Shui On Construction, is relying on the four cranes to lift and position the precast panels weighing up to 8 tonnes and concrete pours.

Space on the extremely compact site, with a footprint of 10,000 m² and little storage area, means that the Liebherr cranes play a key role in the speedy unloading and lifting the panels on arrival at the site.

Three Liebherr 200 EC-H 10 tower cranes are from Shui On's fleet, while the fourth, a 280 EC-H 16, is on rental from Shriro Machinery. All three 200 EC-H 10s have hook heights of 32 to 44 m and jib lengths of 30 to 35 m to provide a maximum lift capacity of 10 tonnes.

The 280 EC-H 16 provides a maximum lifting capacity of 16 tonnes and had an initial 44 m hook height. Throughout construction of the 120 m high towers the 280 EC-H 16 climbed externally depending on the progress of the adjacent crane, to avoid any crane collisions.

By its final hook height it will feature three ties to the side of the tower, each spaced 25 m apart. Situated on a hillside, the towers design have a 9 m high podium to the first floor slab. This latest generation public housing project has 26 apartments per floor with one to two rooms per apartment.

Construction of the two towers started in 2008 in a 33 month contract.