LaPrairie Crane successfully lifted two evaporator towers at the Algar Oil Sands Project (“Algar”) construction site in Northeast Alberta, the larger weighing over 476,000lbs and standing 143ft-tall. Algar is owned by Connacher Oil and Gas Ltd, a Calgary-based oil and natural gas exploration and production company. The evaporator towers will form core elements of the steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) thermal recovery scheme at Algar, which constitutes part of the Great Divide Oil Sands Development Project (“Great Divide”) and is located approximately 80km south of Fort McMurray.
LaPrairie Crane secured the contract to provide lift services to Connacher throughout Algar’s construction, having successfully completed Pod (Phase) One at Great Divide. The landmark lift involved three of LaPrairie’s crawler cranes, each equipped with advanced load moment indicator (LMI) computer technology. The lead crane, a Manitowoc 16000 with Max-Er attachment, was balanced with counterweights of 335,000lbs to provide lift capacity of 630,000lbs. A 235 USt Manitowoc 888 rigged for a lift capacity of 290,000lbs, and a 200 USt Kobelco rigged for a lift capacity of 30,000lbs, were used for tailing the load.
As well as being LaPrairie Crane’s biggest lift to date, the job also marked the company’s first use of its Max-Er heavy lift attachment. The already complex task was further complicated by a unique rigging configuration, and the sheer scale of the lift meant that maintaining a precise tailing crane balance on the load was paramount to its success.
Hoisting of the vessels was successfully completed in six hours. Rob McNeill, project manager for Connacher, was delighted with a job well done. “This was the most complex engineered lift that Connacher has ever undertaken, and LaPrairie Crane’s execution was perfect. Everything went exactly as planned.”
LaPrairie Crane’s vice president of operations, Reagan LaPrairie, said:“Successful completion of this lift was dependent on effective communication and cooperation between people from many fields of expertise. It also puts LaPrairie Crane in the exclusive club of crane companies who have the skills to deliver on such a big job.
