IC Top Lift 2015
18 September 2015
This year’s entries for the IC Top Lift 2015 competition include a selection of complicated and impressive lifts completed in the last 12 months. Readers are asked to pick their favourite from our selection of 10 outstanding lifting projects.
To register your vote, please complete and return the form here. Alternatively, a form is available in the September issue of International Cranes and Specialized Transport magazine on page 38.
Entry 1: Traffic ties
Equipment user – Dawes
Lifting equipment used –crawler crane
Location – Wisconsin, USA
Dawes Rigging & Crane Rental, part of the All Erection & Crane Rental company based in the USA, helped on a US$61 million highway project in Wisconsin. The project included the construction of several new overpass bridges, traffic lane expansion, interchange reconstruction and 40 new roundabouts. Dawes used four Manitowoc 2250 crawler cranes configured with 100 metre main booms. Work included lifting loads above and across several traffic lanes. The cranes were also required to lift road construction equipment onto concrete support piers.
Entry 2: Riverside project
Equipment user – Blüggel
Lifting equipment used – all terrain crane
Location – Eslohe, Germany
Crane service provider Blüggel, based in Germany, used its Terex Explorer 5600 to relocate a footbridge across the River Ruhr in Olsberg. The 5600 was driven to the site fully equipped along a narrow and soft riverbank. Plastic load spreading plates were positioned alongside the river’s walkway to allow the crane to travel to the site. The crane was configured with a main boom of 33.4 metres and 46 tonnes of counterweight. The bridge was 29 m long and weighed 17 tonnes. It was lifted at a radius of 20 m and loaded onto a heavy haulage vehicle, before being moved to its new location further along the river. The 5600 then lifted the bridge from the trailer onto concrete piles at the new location.
Entry 3: Drum lifts
Equipment user – ALE
Lifting equipment used – lattice boom crawler crane
Location – Buenos Aires, Argentina
ALE’s Argentina branch used a 1,350 tonne capacity Liebherr LR 11350 to lift three coke drums at the YPF refinery in Buenos Aires. The coke drums weighed 435 tonnes each. To reduce the ground bearing pressure the crawler was set up on load spreading mats usually used for ALE’s AL.SK crane. Hernán Asensio, ALE project manager, said, “In this project we faced several challenges; working to install such large, heavy coke drums in a small working area filled with obstacles such as trees and buildings.”
Entry 4: Space and time
Equipment user – Riga-Mainz
Lifting equipment used – crawler crane
Location – Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Lifting and transport service provider Riga-Mainz used a 600 tonne capacity Liebherr LR 1600/2 to install a railway bridge in Germany. The new steel bridge weighed 355 tonnes and was 40 metres long. Challenges on site included a small working area and a limited time schedule. To support the weight of the crane during the lift, two reinforced concrete ramps were used. The crawler was configured with 54 m of main boom, 36 m of derrick boom, 65 tonnes of central ballast, 150 tonnes of slewing ballast and 350 tonnes of suspended ballast. The total weight of the lift was 402 tonnes.
Entry 5: Technical lift
Equipment user – Prangl
Lifting equipment used – telescopic all terrain cranes
Location – Hungary
Lifting and specialist transport service provider Prangl, based in Austria, lifted a 116 tonne dryer, a 61 tonne washing system, a 28 tonne chimney base and additional components into an existing 26 metre high steel structure at the Pétfürdő plant in Hungary. The lifting operations were performed outside the plant using a 500 tonne capacity telescopic Terex AC 500-2 and a 700 tonne capacity AC 700. The 116 tonne dryer was hoisted in horizontally in a tandem lift by the AC 500-2 and the AC 700. The lift was undertaken outside the plant, posing challenges, including navigating buildings.
Entry 6: Space constraints
Equipment user – Chunjo Construction
Lifting equipment used – crawler crane
Location – Ulsan, South Korea
South Korean rental company Chunjo Construction used its 2,300 tonne capacity Manitowoc 31000 crawler crane to place two reactors at a petrochemical plant Ulsan. Space at the site was limited and the crawler was required to work from a land filled river, with a road running adjacent to it. The first of the two reactors weighed 800 tonnes and was lifted at a radius of 24 metres. The second reactor weighed 400 tonnes and was lifted at a radius of 34 m. For the lifts, the Manitowoc 31000 was rigged with 70 m of main boom and 964 tonnes of counterweight.
Entry 7: Boom booster
Equipment user – Sarens
Lifting equipment used – lattice boom crawler crane
Location – Netherlands
Sarens erected three large wind turbines, each with a tower height of 135 metres and a generating capacity of 7.5 MW, for the Enercon Wind Park in the Netherlands, using a 1,650 tonne capacity Terex CC 8800-1 lattice boom crawler crane, equipped with the new Boom Booster, a boom system that increases lifting capacity.
Entry 8: Super extension
Equipment user – Crane Hire Ltd
Lifting equipment used – wheeled mobile telescopic crane
Location – Belfast
Crane Hire Ltd (CHL) in Ireland used a 500 tonne capacity Liebherr LTM 1500-8.1 to help with maintenance work on the Byford Dolphin offshore rig at the Harland & Wolff yard in Belfast. The crane was rigged in configuration TY3N with 84 metres of luffing fly jib. “Such a long extension was needed because of the height of the Byford Dolphin’s derrick. The crane needed to lift old parts weighing 6 tonnes up through the 109 metre high derrick. They were then loaded onto transport vehicles and sent for refurbishment,” Tomás O’Leary at CHL explained.
Entry 9: Ocean strength
Equipment user – XCMG
Lifting equipment used – crawler crane
Location – Shandong Province, China
A 2,000 tonne capacity XCMG XGC28000 was used to lift a drilling platform in Shandong Province, China. The 28,000 tonne-metre-rated crawler was rigged in SHW super-lift configuration with 102 metres of main boom and 54 m auxiliary jib. It lifted the oil platform at a working radius of 41 m to a height of 100 m. The lift was completed within 40 minutes, a company spokesperson said. The task was the first offshore industry project to be carried out by the XGC28000.
Entry 10: Shell installation
Equipment user – Mammoet
Lifting equipment used – jacking system
Location – West Philippine Sea
International heavy lifting and specialized transport company Mammoet completed the installation of an oil & gas industry platform for Shell in the Philippines. The platform was floated into place over its final location and the legs were lowered onto the prepared seabed. A pre-installed jacking system jacked the platform on 80 metre legs to lift it from the water. During the platform’s construction, the strand jacks were also installed to prepare for the jack down of the DCP’s legs and to raise the platform into place. To keep it level a new computer system to create tension and control platform movement on the water was used.
