Lifting and skidding

Alton SAED (Sistemas Alternativos de Elevación y Desplazamiento), a division of Spanish crane rental company Eurogrúas, was contracted to supply alternative lifting and engineering services for the Combined Cycle Power Plant at Arcos de Frontera, Spain.

Lifting and skidding systems and new engineering lifting techniques were used to lift and position generators weighing up to 295 tonnes after they had been transported into the buildings where they were to be housed.

The installation began at Puerto Real, Cadiz, and the pieces were transported on SPMTs to the power plant. Once the generators were at the plant, a sliding gantry was used to move the pieces 65 m inside where they were lifted into place using Alton's Strandlift system. The strand jacks were fitted with ARTE (Alton Real Time equipment), which is the company's computer-based control system that it boasts is accurate to 1 mm.