World’s tallest multipoint jack-up system

International high-pressure hydraulics company Enerpac has been awarded a contract by lifting and transport company Burkhalter to extend the height of its 2,000 tonne (500 tonnes per tower) jack up system from 20 to 36 metres.

The near doubling in height will produce the world’s tallest jack up system, allowing USA-based Burkhalter to handle more civil engineering and industrial multipoint lifts, the company said.

A typical system setup for the Enerpac jack up system includes four jack up towers positioned under each corner of a load. The four tower setup has a lifting capacity of 2,000 tonnes and the lifting frame of each jack up tower contains four hydraulic cylinders in each corner, which lift and stack steel boxes measuring 1 m in height. A load is lifted in increments as boxes are inserted via an automated system forming lifting towers.

David James, project manager at Burkhalter, said, “We had considered using strand jacks for a bridge demolition project, however, the barge-mounted Enerpac jack up system will be a safer, more efficient, synchronised lift of the bridge off its foundations. Working with the Enerpac team, we developed the concept of a taller jack up system that retained the lift capacity and versatility of multipoint synchronised lifting for loads up to 2,000 tonnes.”

Increasing the height of the system will involve adding an additional 56 boxes and four strengthened corner bracing units to accommodate the extra 14 boxes per corner. The jack up system is controlled by a central computer control unit. Each tower’s lifting and lowering operations occur simultaneously; the computer control unit’s synchronous technology maintains the balance of the load.