General contractor Greyback Construction called on Clermont Tower Crane Service to supply two self-erecting tower cranes for an extremely long building – the Thompson Nicola Regional District, or TNRD, project in Kamloops, British Columbia.
The Kelowna-based crane company supplied a Comedil CBR-32 and a Liebherr 44K, erected at different heights to allow overlap. In combination, the two cranes allowed for complete coverage of the building site, which would have been difficult to achieve with one conventional tower crane, according to Clermont.
The added benefit of a second crane was that it also increased productivity immensely, the company says.The two cranes were erected after the suspended main floor slab was placed. The Comedil CBR-32 has a maximum capacity of 3t and lifts 1t at 32m radius with a hook height of 22.5m. The Liebherr 44K has a maximum capacity of 2t and lifts 935kg at 37.5m radius with a hook height of 30m.
As the building was constructed, openings were left in subsequent floors, large enough to accommodate removal of the tower cranes. When construction was completed enough to remove the two cranes, a Mannesmann Dematic 165t hydraulic mobile crane with super-lift attachment was used to extract the two cranes from within the building envelope.
Each tower crane’s jib was retracted into the tower, and counterweight blocks were removed. The entire tower crane was then lifted out of the building and onto the street where power was reconnected and the final stages of folding up the crane were completed.
The braking axles and fifth wheel hitch assembly were attached and the crane was then transported away by tractor.
