Building for the future

Starting in 2017, Wolffkran Arabia implemented a lifting plan for this project. The plan involved the erection of three tower cranes; with those units being changed to higher-capacity ones as the construction progressed.

Wolffkran Arabia also provided the base design and procedures to erect and dismantle the cranes safely. They facilitated this process with the SMIE anti-collision system and in-house trained crane operators.

In April of the same year, Wolffkran Arabia erected three 12t 6531.12 saddle jib cranes. Two were installed on 2.5m square bases, and the other one was installed on a 2.9m square base.

The second phase of the crane operations began in October 2017, when the three cranes were switched for two 28t 355B luffers and one 20t 8033.20 saddle jib crane. The same bases were used as the first phase.

At the start of phase 2, the cranes lifted 11–12t panels but, as construction progressed, they were jacked up to lift up to 20t steel parts. The cranes were operating for about 20 hours every day, lifting between 9–15t of steel parts every hour.

For the third and final phase, the height under hook of the cranes increased to 67.5m for the two luffers and 87.7m for the saddle jib. The jib of the latter was extended from 45m to 50m to facilitate lifting materials of up to 4t.

With the museum set to open in September 2020, the Wolffkran Arabia team is now evaluating ways to dismantle the cranes safely.