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When Ainscough Crane Hire was called upon to support essential infrastructure works on the transformational Greek Street project in Stockport, the challenge was clear: deliver a series of highly complex heavy lifts in a tightly constrained urban environment, while keeping disruption to local residents and traffic to an absolute minimum.
This project showcases Ainscough’s ability to combine technical excellence, collaboration, and community sensitivity on some of the UK’s most challenging infrastructure projects.
The Challenge
Greek Street is a busy route through the Greater Manchester town, with residential areas and businesses close by. As a result of the work, the Greek Street roundabout is closed to traffic for one year starting from 31 March 2025.
This closure is part of Network Rail’s almost £20m investment to replace the aging bridge that crosses over the West Coast Main Line. The original bridge, constructed in 1958, had reached the end of its life and needed to be replaced.
Ainscough was first engaged by its client Murphy about working on the job in 2018, with Heavy Cranes technical manager David Baxter leading the lifting company’s presence on the project.
The bridge is on the Manchester spur of the West Coast Main Line and sees about 400 passenger and 50 freight services passing under it each day. The replacement has been carefully planned to make sure these services can continue to run reliably for years to come. The new bridge has a life expectancy of 120 years.
Ainscough’s work on the project saw the team assisting principal contractor Murphy to successfully dismantle and remove 200 beams from the old structure, and lift and position beams for its replacement over five railway lines.
The installation of large troughs and edge beams across the northern and southern sections of the Greek Street site meant deploying some of the most powerful crawler cranes in the UK.
With critical lifts weighing close to 110.0 tonnes, and beam deliveries needing to be escorted by police through narrow time slots, the operation had to be planned down to the finest detail. Added to this was the need to manage rigging within strict road closure windows, ensuring the local community experienced as little disruption as possible.
Ainscough’s Solution
Ainscough deployed its Liebherr LR1700-1 crawler crane, supported by a Liebherr LTM1100-5.2, to take on the southern lifts on the site. For the northern lifts, a Liebherr LR1600-1, hired direct to Ainscough Crane Hire from Weldex and supported by an LTM1090-4.2, was brought in.
Rigging began on 28th July, with both cranes rigged to their required configurations: the LR1700-1 on 78.0m main boom and 375.0te of superlift ballast and Liebherr LR1600-1 on 72.0m main boom with 220.0te of superlift ballast over a six-day period. To minimise impact, 54.0m of initial boom was assembled during a permanent closure, while the remaining boom and hook blocks were added in short, carefully planned Saturday night closures.
A total of 34 steel load spreading mats were positioned under the cranes to distribute the loading to prevent any side loading on the side wall down to track level and to protect the highways.
The Liebherr LR1700-1 has an average loading of 12.18te/m² and Liebherr LR600-1 an average loading of 13.18t/m². All lifts were engineered to stay within the safe margin parameters required when working for Network Rail.
The cranes were operational from 3rd August up until the 21st August, with the first operations covering the deconstruction of the bridge beam being removed first followed by the concrete abutment blocks. The abutment blocks being lifted meant demolition was avoided, thereby reducing the risk of any damage to the rail infrastructure down below and ensuring the possession period was utilised to the full and guaranteeing the program was achievable. Once the deconstruction was complete, the new abutments, prefabricated paired beams and a critical central through beam were lifted into place during a tightly choreographed operation.
Each crane was supported by a dedicated lift team, including operators, supervisors, and slinger/signallers, working 12-hour shifts.
The most demanding lifts included:
Ainscough’s cranes had a combined capacity of 1,300 tonnes, with the new bridge parts inched into position across a 25.0m gap above the tracks, in the place where the former structure was standing for 67 years.
Despite the scale and complexity, all teams contributed to meeting the programme milestones.
The Outcome
Through meticulous planning and execution, every beam was installed safely, on time, and with zero incidents. The police-escorted deliveries from Irlam arrived within their time slots, ensuring seamless integration with the lifting programme.
The project highlighted not only the capability of Ainscough’s fleet but also the expertise of its people — from engineers who designed the lifting plans, to the teams on the ground who worked tirelessly to deliver them.
“This project simply wouldn’t have been possible without the skill, professionalism, and dedication of all parties,” commented Dave Baxter. “Our ability to manage such technically demanding lifts with absolute precision helped to ensure that the programme was delivered safely, smoothly, and exactly to plan.”
Stephen Harnett, Murphy project manager, said: “It’s immensely rewarding to complete this core milestone of the project. The effort put in by our team has been nothing short of amazing as they work around the clock to upgrade and return this critical piece of infrastructure to the local community.”
A Trusted Partner in Complex Lifting
When complete, the new Greek Street bridge will mean more reliable journeys for passenger and freight traffic on the railway below – and for road users above – as normally it carries a four-way roundabout.
The Greek Street works are a strong example of teamwork combined with technical excellence and sensitivity to local communities. By balancing power and precision, and by collaborating closely with project partners, Ainscough’s team was able to deliver a flawless lifting programme on one of Stockport’s most challenging infrastructure sites.
With zero harm, zero delays, and complete client satisfaction, the project stands as a testament to Ainscough’s position as the UK’s leading lifting solutions provider.
