Back
A team, led by Ainscough’s West London Depot, has played a critical role in the assembly of a new waste water treatment plant for Heathrow Airport which has been developed by leading water and waste treatment company, Veolia Water Technologies.
The project, known as Heathrow Camp 4, is located on the Great Western Road, in the direct flight path of aeroplanes approaching the airport’s runway 27L from the east.
The project involved the Ainscough team positioning various elements of the treatment plant including tanks, pipework, various construction materials and other ancillary components over a period of three months.
With a Liebherr MK110 stationed on site for much of the duration of works, the team had to work within the tight safety restrictions imposed by the airport and Civil Aviation Authority. This meant that different height restrictions were in place during daytime and night time operations.
The relatively constrained site also meant that careful planning was required to ensure that smaller mobile cranes brought onto site could operate safely in proximity to the MK110. This was especially important for the lifting of materials which required two mobile cranes on site for loads to be topped and tailed such as the prefabricated water containment vessels.
Owing to on-site height restrictions, the MK110 was only able to operate with its mast elevated to 17 metres to keep below the day time working ceiling height of 22 meters, rather than the standard 25 or 33. These configurations, which have only recently been introduced by Liebherr, had to be thoroughly tested off site first and meant the crane had to operate at 50 per cent of its standard winch speed to stay within safety limits.
Steve Scott, contract lift manager, from the West London Depot, said: “Thinking about the job as a whole, it was a challenging set of circumstances we found ourselves in. Like most jobs, we have to respond to the situation and give our customers our best advice based on our experience and know how.
“Safety is always our watchword and, as we approach the final lifts on this project, we are very pleased to have delivered for Veolia on this project.”
Over 30 days or night of lift activity has taken place on site using a range of cranes from the MK110 mobile tower crane to an LTM 1040.
