Crane flock in Stockholm

Swedish crane rental company BinSell has supplied six Liebherr tower cranes for the ‘Urban Escape’ project and four for the ‘Sergelstade’ development.

The inner city location, in association with the existing infrastructure, made the erection of these cranes challenging.

BinSell COO Daniele Solito said: “Major parts of this area of Stockholm the streets are built like bridges. So as the cranes are placed on the streets, and custom made portals where made so that the forces from the cranes could be taken in the pillars of the bridges. On only one of the cranes could we use a standard portal from Liebherr. Due to the clients’ demand it was not possible to put the cranes inside the buildings.”

The Urban Escape includes the construction of fi ve buildings, four streets, two squares and a shopping centre. The majority of space will be for commercial and retail use, but there will also be 1100 sqm of residential space created.

For the construction of this ambitious project, BinSell has provided six Liebherr high-top tower cranes—three 630 EC-H20 Litronic, two 550 EC-H20 Litronic and a 280 EC-H12 Litronic. The cranes were erected on custommade portals made of concrete, narrower than the standard 10x10m base of the crane.

Crossing Hamngatan, one can see the four Liebherr tower cranes used for the Sergelstaden project, which involves the creation of offi ce and retail spaces.

Two Liebherr 280 EC-H12 Litronic are erected there— one on a 10m 550 base and custom made portal and one on 550 mast and a climbable adapter. This crane was bolted with reusable anchor shoes onto a grey steel assembly.

At the site there are also two 280 EC-B flat tops, one on 10m 550 base and custom made portal and the other one on a 6m base and a Liebherr standard portal.

Solito said all the tower cranes used are equipped with zoning and anticollision even between the projects.

They have been used for demolition work, precast concrete element erection and curtain wall erection. BinSell also provided mobile cranes for these projects, with their tasks including the erection and dismantling of the tower cranes, which took place during the nighttime, and the assembling of portals.

The crane rental company, founded in 1951, has over 100 mobile cranes and tower cranes in its fleet.