One between two

Mammoet and Van Semeuren are major competitors in the world of heavy lifting. But when MTBE Malaysia built its propane dehydrogenation plant in Kuantan, tight time constraints on the project brought them together as co-workers.

The contract for the transport and lifting aspects of the job was won by Mammoet. But when MTBE decided to specify two large cranes, to reduce the construction time, Mammoet needed to call on the services of Van Seumeren’s Platform Twin Ring Heavy Duty crane to work alongside its own Manitowoc M1200 ringer to erect a huge splitter column. With only a pipe rack separating them, the cranes lifted their loads onto the various foundations.

Mammoet also used 36 self-propelled axle lines for transporting the columns, the heaviest of which weighed 1,200t and was 110m long. It was fabricated by KNM Steel Construction in Malaysia and transported on two 24-axle lines of SPMT. Transport preparations included constructing a road to bypass a bridge. Apart from breaking a few tree branches near the fabrication yard, the 5km journey to site went smoothly and took less than eight hours.

While Mammoet did the transport, Van Seumeren rigged its Platform Twin Ring with 102.4m main boom and 35.7m luffing jib. The 2,000t capacity crane was transported from a previous jobsite in the Middle East and built up ready for work in only 27 days.

Once the column was placed on its temporary supports the trailers were reconfigured into three 12-axle lines. Van Seumeren built its tailing frame on the Mammoet trailers and on Monday 9 August everything was ready to start erecting the heaviest column, code number C-3003. Once preparation was done the actual lift only took a few hours. Around 5pm the column was lowered over its foundation bolts and Kuantan had a new landmark.