Back
The concept of the using a tandem lift for this application was first conceived by Fairport and later developed by the Ainscough and Fairport team working together.
The 500 metre long jetty is being assembled to receive construction materials at the 3,200 MWe power station which has an estimated construction cost of around £20 billion and an operational lifetime of 60 years. In the process, the Jetty will remove pressure on the local road network reducing the impact of the construction on local communities.
With the main structure of the jetty partially complete, work to add the first 8 gantries was carried out with the lifting support provided by the Ainscough team to Fairport Engineering who designed and manufactured the gantries. Special crane lifting mats were designed and manufactured by Fairport so as to allow the loads created during the lift to be distributed through the road bridge structure.
Locating the crane on the jetty was a precision affair with just 70mm of clearance between the kerbs and outrigger mats. The outrigger pads had to be positioned on specially made steel/concrete mats and within a 10mm tolerance. The positional constraints relating to the lift pad combined with the lift capacity requirements, led the team to select two Liebherr LTM 1060-3.1 cranes with VarioBase technology to complete the tandem lifts.
Technical manager, Mario Martins explained “This is the only type of crane which could have carried these works out and the flexibility of our fleet once again came to the fore to meet our customers’ needs. The stability and positioning of the lift pad is always one of our major concerns but they are rarely if ever as precise as this. The 6.0m x 0.55m steel/concrete mats designed by Fairport were manufactured specifically for these lifts and positioned along the length of the jetty.”
Earlier in 2018, Ainscough hit a major milestone by completing 1000 lifts on the Hinkley Point C site.
The crane was able to operate in restrictive parameters whilst maintaining high levels of safety at all times and there was no accidents or incidents reported on this job. VarioBase® technology calculates the maximum lifting capacity and communicates this to the load moment limiter within the on-board computer; reducing the possibility of human error. It ensures higher lifting capacities and a larger working range, even with a maximum support base, increasing the operating ranges and versatility of our fleet.
