A really big crane.
I thought this may interest a couple of the civils.
Keltbray have just erected the UKs tallest land based crane. The crane is to be used for the demolition of Market Place Station at Earls Court. The demolition requires the removal of all the station buildings (simple enough) and also all of the portal beams that span the underground lines running underneath the site (not so simple). There are 61 portal beams in total with weights varying between 200 tons and 1400 tons. The original plan was to break out each beam by cutting them into 20 ton sections and then lifting each section out. This would have taken up to two years to complete the beam removal and would have also resulted in numerous rail closures (in London’s current strike-riddled system this would have heaped even more misery onto commuters). The demolition plans were nearing approval when some bright spark decided to ‘go big early’ and suggested using a massive crane instead. The plan would be to make a cut at either end of a portal beam and then lift it out in one piece. This idea would shave years off the project program and was selected as the method for removing the portal beams.
As a result the crane has just been erected at Earls Court:
It stands at nearly 120m high and has a counter balance weight of 12000 tons.
Everyone at Keltbray is very excited about it.
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Fred
I cannot quite see from the photos but what are the foundations required? Or does it sit on tracks or were specific foundations built?
Looks like the drag line type set ups seen in large opencast mines?
How are they dealing with all the underground structures with the stresses from the crane? That is a big crane!
I assume you are being modest and that it was in fact yourself that had the great idea? Sounds like a good story for CPR. What’s the max utilisation of the crane? ie Do you have a few high risk lift operations ahead or is it capable of dealing with loads comfortably in excess of the maximum 1400 lift? I assume, as per normal practice the removal of the 1400 tonne beam will conveniently fall (Unfortunate pun!) on a Saturday morning?
I ‘red-penned’ a contractor crane safety/lift plan last year, would be interesting to see what the documents look like for that beast!
Rich, the main body sits on a 10mx10mx1.4m base. It is on tracks to enable it to slew round.
Chris, the crane is not situated above any underground lines. So one of the geotech bods here ran calculations to determine if the ground would be adequate for the task.
Tom, unfortunately I can’t claim this one. It was designed, approved and in construction before I even turned up. Looking at the crane specification (AL SK190) it says it can lift up to 3000 tons in one go and as this is very much a ‘flagship operation’ for Keltbray I doubt they will leave it to the Saturday morning crew to operate it.
Cookie, not had eyes on any docs, I’ll have a look about.
I’ve just updated the post with a picture of a scale model that keltbray have had built in the office foyer. It shows the crane lifting a portal beam.