Jost crane to the rescue

The three-storey £14m hub will be a base for Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service, Thames Valley Police and South Central Ambulance Service and will be the first of its kind in the country. The building will be a multi-use community facility, enabling education programmes based on fire prevention and crime reduction.

The construction comprises a concrete frame, fully-glazed façade to the central hub and two steel frame ‘wings’ on a three acre site in West Ashlands.

Bennetts Cranes is supplying heavy lifting to Kingerlee, the selected construction partner for the project. The Gloucestershire-based tower crane specialist has erected a Jost JT 132.8, purchased in 2015, at the construction site.

Edward Seager, managing director of Bennetts Cranes, said the reason behind the choice of a flat top saddle jib crane is that it minimises the height that the crane needs to be for a job.

“There are two main advantages to minimising the height. One is it reduces the cost of erecting and dismantling, as well as the size and cost of the base of the crane. Secondly it reduces the wind load on the crane, therefore helping to reduce the amount of time a crane has to go out of service when it gets too windy. The site is reasonably large and spacious, with no issues of over-sailing nearby properties and therefore a saddle jib crane was appropriate for the job,” Seager said.

The Jost JT 132.8 was erected on site with a 24m mast, 50m jib and lifting 2.1t at 50m. The tower crane is being used for lifting construction materials.

The building is due to be completed late summer and open this autumn. “We’re pleased to be working with Kingerlee on this flagship public sector project. We’ve had our crane on site for several months and have made good progress,” said Seager.

The JT 132.8 is one of 50 Jost cranes in Bennett’s fleet, five of which are saddle jib cranes and 45 which are luffing jib cranes.