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15th March 2017

AINSCOUGH LIFTS GOLIATH TO HELP DELIVER CROSSRAIL

Ainscough lifts Goliath to help deliver Crossrail

An archived story back from when Ainscough began working on the Crossrail Project, now nearing completion. Leading lifting solutions company, Ainscough Crane Hire, helped assemble a large-format gantry crane at Tottenham Court Road underground station in central London as part of the £15 billion Crossrail project.

Supplied by Britain’s biggest industrial crane and hoist manufacturer, Street Crane, the 40 tonne double girder gantry crane and was installed on Oxford Street to service the construction of the major transport infrastructure project.

The crane was used to lift spoil skips, lowering tunnel segments and other pre-cast elements for the Crossrail tunnel and new Tottenham Court Road western ticket hall. It was used 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to help excavate 35,000 cubic metres of material over a six month period.

Mark Hadfield, Marketing Manager at Street Crane said: “It was really interesting for us to witness the skill and precision the Ainscough crane operators used while assembling the gantry crane. It is not something you would normally see on one of, if not the country’s busiest shopping street. It was quite a sight.

“All the lifts proceeded without a hitch, which enabled our team to get on the site and play a small but significant role in the realisation of the Crossrail project.”

The Ainscough team used three Liebherr mobile all-terrain cranes to complete the assembly: an LTM 1070-4.1, a 75 tonne crane, an LTM 1100/2, a 100 tonne crane and a LTM 1055-3.2, a 55 tonne machine. The cranes were used in different configurations to lift and tail the gantry crane sections which included a 15,800kg trailing beam along with a 17,900kg main beam and platform and both beams were 36.5 metres in length.

Crossrail is a 73-mile railway line under development in London and the home counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Essex. The central section and a large portion of the line (between Paddington in central London and Abbey Wood in the south-east) are due to open in December 2017.

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