Hoists' helping hand

Three Alimak dual hoists are raising personnel and materials during the construction of what will, on completion, be Hong Kong’s tallest building, and the fourth highest building in the world.

The International Commerce Centre (ICC) is being built in West Kowloon, Hong Kong, and at its full height will have 118 storeys and stand at 484m (1,588ft). Completion is scheduled for 2010 (Cranes Today February 2007 p25).

The hoists were ordered through Alimak’s Hong Kong distributor C Crossfield and Co Ltd, which also installed the equipment in association with Alimak engineers. Crossfield service engineers remain on site.

“When we were planning the International Commerce Centre tower, I specified the use of Alimak," says project director Ricky F W Lam, of lead contractor Sanfield Building Contractors, part of SHKP. "I wanted to minimise the use of cranes, because with a project of this size and configuration, the large-scale use of hoists in conjunction with climbing cranes can be very effective."

“An important factor was that I wanted to use a hoist for lifting the glass cladding panels up the building as we progressed, thereby reducing our hook time with the cranes. These panels are almost 5m in height, and so we had to have two of the cars built to a dimension of 2m x 5m.

“But the hoists are also being used for smaller items and for volume materials such as cement and tiling. The flexibility and speed the system gives us is very important when working to a tight schedule.”

In addition to the building materials, the hoists are also used to transport large numbers of the 2,000-plus working personnel to the various levels of the building. In accordance with a long-established Hong Kong tradition the cage operators are all female, the presence of women serving to moderate behaviour amongst workers up against urgent schedules.

The 2m x 5m cars are the largest the company has ever installed. They are part of an Alimak Scando Super FC 33/50C TD dual car hoist. Two Alimak Scando Super FC 28/27 C TD dual car hoists provide another four cars in total, each of them measuring 1.5m x 3.7m.

The hoists have been installed on a common tower at the front of the ICC building. Each of the units operates on its own mast attached to the common tower.

All the hoists have an ultimate lifting height of 393m and can travel at speeds of up to 100m per minute.

ICC storeys have a floor-to-ceiling height of 2.85m in the two lower zones, and 3.15m for upper zones. A low E-coating curtain wall clads the exterior.

Three dual Alimak hoists were installed on the building Three dual Alimak hoists were installed on the building Alimak cabin on Hong Kong's International Commerce Centre Alimak cabin on Hong Kong's International Commerce Centre