Potains rise in Moscow City

Russian rental house Rentakran has a range of cranes working for contractor ENKA on the US$12 billion Moscow International Business Center, known as Moscow City. It will be the largest development of its kind in Eastern Europe and include business, leisure and hospitality facilities.

The 305 m high Eurasia Tower will be a central landmark of the development. A Potain MR 295 H20 luffing jib is being used to help build it. The tower crane has a 20 tonne lifting capacity and will climb to 202 m during the tower's construction. Completion is due by March 2010.

Rentakran was founded in 1996 and has some 200 tower cranes in its fleet, most of which are Potains. The company has supplied two other Potain tower cranes for work on another part of the Moscow City project, for contractor GSK Monolith. An MC 175 and MDT 178, both with an 8 tonne lifting capacity, are working at the Central Core. It covers three plots of land which will connect underground and overground sections of the development. Work on the Central Core will finish in September 2009.

"This is an ambitious project and one that will become a landmark in Moscow. With so much attention on the site, we need cranes that offer a solid, reliable performance, which is what we get with Potain. We also get strong support from Manitowoc Crane Care," said Serhan Arpaci, Rentakran commercial director. The Moscow City project is scheduled for completion in 2020.

* Manitowoc has appointed two new Potain dealers in the US. Select Equipment in Richmond, Virginia and Allstate Crane Rental Co., in Charleston, South Carolina are now authorised to sell the manufacturer's line of self erecting tower cranes. "This type of crane can be very useful to my customers. It will allow me to offer them more lifting options, and it will make my fleet of cranes more versatile and agile," said James Linton, owner of Allstate Crane Rental Co.