Middle East and North Africa job roundup

Tabelloût Dam, Algeria

French contractor Racel-Bec used two of its Potain MD 345 cranes to provide general lifting and concrete pouring duties on arguably the largest infrastructure projects in the country's history.

To pour the concrete the two 12t capacity MD 345s and the 16t capacity MD 365 are skipping 3 cubic metre buckets into the dam structure. These buckets are easily handled by the cranes even out to their maximum jib lengths, which stretch up to 75m. Final working heights for the cranes will be up to 135m. On the headrace tunnel construction, the 8t capacity MD 175 is lifting concrete sections and various other loads.

A total of one million cubic metres of concrete will be used in the dam, which is being built from roller compacted concrete. Once complete, the dam will measure 120m high and 400m across, while thickness will range from 100m at ground level to 8m at the ridge. Construction will take 45 months.

The dam is being built at Jijel, and will irrigate and provide drinking water to the drier high plains region of the country.

Aqaba, Jordan

Yousef Mousa Cranes has completed the test and inspection work for the cranes, lifting gear, crane operators and riggers, in Aqaba container port development. The company has already done several training courses for the riggers and operators.

Dutch Company BAM International is responsible for the construction of the new port in Aqaba. Amongst the crawler cranes used by the firm was a new Liebherr crawler type LR1200 with a capacity of 200t. This crawler along with four other cranes, some of which are mounted on barges, are doing the piling work. Other cranes on the job include a 150t Sumitomo SC1500 and a 250t Kobelco CKE2500G.

Nad Al Sheba, United Arab Emirates

Al Faris equipment rentals used seven Liebherr cranes from the manufacturers LTM all terrain range and two Tadano GR700s on the construction of a Falcon training centre in the UAE.

The box structure weighed 90t and was 90m long, which had no lifting point and a top surface that wasn't flat. Al Faris had to use tie chains with choke hitch, along with additional shackles to balance the structure during lifting operation.

A Liebherr LTM11200-9.1 1200t was used as the main boom for the job, it was supported by two 500t Liebherr LTM1500-8.1 that provided the fly jib and luffing jib. A 400t Liebherr LTM1400-7.1 crane used a superlift fly jib and a 160t Liebherr LTM1160-5.1 was used to fix the end piece.

A 100t Liebherr LTM1100-5.1 and a Liebherr LTM1070-4.2, along with two 70t Tandano GR700-EX were used to hold the man basket.

Mekele, Ethiopia

Belgian company Sarens are working on the installation of a wind farm in Mekele Ethiopia using a Liebherr LG 1550 SL2H configuration lattice boom crane, along with three all terrain cranes, the Liebherr LTM 1100-2 and LTM 1095. Two heavy trucks and two smaller Merlo cranes have also been used on the project.

The heaviest element to be lifted was the nacelle of the 67t turbine which was lifted at 80m height. The team faced multiple logistical challenges during construction such as rigging and derigging the LG 1550 in limited time on a very uneven site.

The company was awarded the full installation service after finishing phase one of the project with the Sarbas system. The contract for phases two and three of the project, consists of the construction of 54 turbines of 1.6MW. To date 18 out of 54 turbines have been installed by 14 Sarens workers. The scheduled end of project is early July 2013.