A forest of assorted red and white tower cranes stands on the left side of the take-off runway at Spain’s Madrid airport. At the last count there were 22, with Potains working alongside Liebherrs, at least one Pingon and a number of Linden Comansa cranes.

More will appear shortly. A second site for a satellite terminal will need almost as many cranes; an order for five Comansa LC 2070s is in the course of delivery for example. More Liebherrs may join the four already on site, which include three 600 HCs and a 280 EC-H12.

The satellite terminal will be connected by tunnel to the first site where the new terminal is almost a year into construction.

The spectacular new building, a 1km-long slender wing shape will more than double the size of Spain’s main airport when it comes on stream in 2004 as part of a $2.7bn expansion.

Client Aeropuertos Espanoles y Navigacion Aerea began the project in the early 1990s. An international design competition in 1997 was won by UK architect Richard Rogers with Spanish firm Estudio Antonio Lamella. Structural engineering is by TPS (the consultancy arm of UK contractor Carillion) and Inetec of Spain.

Planning and layout of the airport, features futuristic ‘canyons’, full height atria stretching the complete length of the three and four storey central building. Inside these giant glazed light wells will be free standing lifts and escalators.

The canyons result from the modular structure of the building. Modules are set in rows to form the building and between them are the canyons. A 1km-long module row forms the airside ‘wing’ and in the middle of the building three additional rows of modules and the canyons between them, form the central retail and check in. The satellite will be a double row of modules linked by a people mover to the main terminal.

The mainly concrete structure features 18m-span prestressed beams between columns, along the building length. Rows of columns are 9m apart. This huge concreting and building assembly operation is now being carried out by a joint venture Spanish firm contractor of FCC, ACS, Ferrovial, Necso and Sacyr, and some smaller contractors.

With 2,500 workers already on the site, a number expecting to peak at 5,000, logistics are important, not least the interactions between all the tower cranes and numerous mobiles brought in and out as required.

Cranes do much of the lifting and supply work for formwork, stressing equipment and steel. Some concrete is skipped although numerous pumps are also visible on site supplying much of the bulk.

Cranes range in size. The Liebherrs for example include a 70m jib on one of the 600HC with a 57m under hook height, owned by Necso, and two with a higher 74m under hook and 60m jibs owned respectively by ACS and Fomento.

As of last month there were 11 Potains on site, all with 60m jib lengths and heights under hook varying from 31.4m to 69m. The Potain cranes are five MD 345s (4.1t capacity at jib end), three MD 305s (4.25t capacity at jib end) and three K30/30s (3.9t capacity at jib end).

Comansa cranes include an 8952 with a 7t capacity at 80m and LC 2070s capable of lifting 2.3t at 74m radius.

Other cranes are also being used by contractor Dragados for precast elements, formwork and steel on a multi-storey carpark under construction on the landside of the terminal.