The 400t crawler was deployed to handle the placement of 17 girders. For the job, Universal Cranes configured the 16000 with 54m of main boom and 437t of counterweight, including the capacity-enhancing MAX-ER attachment.
Nicolas Navarrete, project manager at Universal Cranes, said: “Placing the girders with the 16000 was relatively simple, and the crane performed perfectly,” he said. “The challenging part of this job was coordinating the delivery of the girders to the job site and ensuring we could handle the work within the relatively short time constraints of the project.”
All 17 girders were positioned inside a one-month timeframe. The time saved by using the 16000 with MAX-ER was important as transportation of the girders was already taking a significant amount of time. Only one could be transported per night, because of their size and weight.
There were two girder sizes, one weighing 64t, and the other 138.5t. Installation took an average of 45 minutes, with some placements relatively straightforward but others needing more careful planning owing to their positioning over live rail tracks. The efficiency of the lifts was aided by the use of a spreader bar, which divided the load evenly across the girder. For the heavier girders, the lifting radius was 29.4m, while for the lighter girders it was pushed out to 56m.
