A third new tower crane has been installed for the ongoing construction of the Sagrada Família, Antoni Gaudi’s extraordinary ‘organic’ cathedral in Barcelona, Spain. The French Potain MD 285B crane was erected last month.
Concrete for the plinth was poured using an existing Potain MC 65 which arrived on the site two years ago, joining a larger MD 235 working at the top of the construction, with a highest working point of 130m.
The three cranes are being used to construct flooring inside the cathedral as well as for the remarkable range of towers that the building will have.
Gaudi, who died in 1926, conceived three facades each with four towers reaching about 90m high, with four higher towers around a central dome. A final high tower is planned to reach 177m.
Architect Jordi Bonet has been working on the scheme since 1987 and pushing ahead controversially with the second facade, completed in 1998. It has a thoroughly different feel from the Gaudi facade. Work on the ‘stone forest’ nave and the central four towers and tower dome is now under way.
A single older Richer tower crane which has stood at the site for 35 years is also to be replaced with a Potain in the next few months.
