Planting a seed in Eden

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The 67t piece, created by Peter Randall-Page, is called Seed. It is a large oval structure, decorated with 1,800 nodules in a Fibonacci spiral, said to be occur frequently in nature. The sculpture was designed to form the centrepiece of the project’s education centre, and its installation on June 11 2007 was watched by thousands of visitors.

Bev Hitchcock of Westcountry Crane Hire managed lift services for the project, from taking the original piece of stone from the quarry, through to installing the sculpture at the Eden Project. He spoke to Cranes Today, and explained the four years of work, four lifts, and five cranes that went into bringing Randall-Page’s creation to the Eden Project:

“We started with a year of planning in 2003. At this time, we also set up the lifting site at the Eden project, using a four pile combination setting. This would be the only place we would be able to sit the crane when we came to do the final lift.

“The first lift took place at De Lank Quarry on the edge of Bodmin Moor. We lifted a 167t block of stone out of the quarry, using a Liebherr LR 1750 on hire from Weldex in Scotland. This block was whittled down to 103t, and then placed on a turntable, fabricated by Seward Wyon. We used a Terex-Demag AC 300 from Hewden Hire for this part of the job.

“Access to the quarry was a problem. The only access road crossed a 2.95m wide bridge, so we had to put ramps on either side and carry the AC 300 across on a trailer. We only had 2.95m, and a 60mm parapet, and then the drop into the stream below, so this was one of the most stressful bits of the job - the rest of the team tell me I was going white as the crane crossed the bridge. For the first lift, the crane had come over the bridge in containers.

“The sculptor then finished the piece, reducing the weight to 67t. We lifted the sculpture off the turntable in a tandem lift and onto a steerable low-loader, from Victoria Heavy Haulage. We used a Liebherr LTM 1120 and a Liebherr LTM 1080; access was still a problem, so we chose to use two cranes that could pass over the bridge, rather than a bigger crane that would have needed to be carried over on a trailer. The lorry then had to reverse three quarters of a mile down a country lane to reach the road.

“The crane used for the final lift was a Liebherr LTM 11000 D, on hire from Baldwins. This had a 50.7m main boom with 31m backmast. There was 160t of counterweight on the superstructure, and a further 140t of superlift counterweight at 13m radius. Maximum capacity in this configuration is 72t. The final load was 67t, including tackle, which needed to be lifted to 39.5m radius.

“At the Eden project, we picked the load from the trailer using the LTM 11000 D in its main boom configuration, without superlift. There wasn’t room behind the crane for the superlift, so we had to swing round 90°, then attach the superlift so we could go out to the full radius.

“The crane was rigged with wire woven slings, specially made by Austin and McLean for this job. There was only a little bit of clearance in the roof of the lifting site, so these needed to be thin, and not scratch the surface of the sculpture. We used two slings, each 45mm thick and 300mm wide, good for 70t each. These were padded with foam rubber on the inside, against the sculpture, and conveyor belting on the outside. We completed the lift with no damage to the stone.

“At the final lift, we knew the crane and foundation were OK, but had to hold the load in the air so that the visitors - 9,000 of them - could take photos. That added to the stress.”

The Seed's creator, Peter Randall-Page, standing in front of the sculpture Peter Randall-Page Looking down into the Eden Project education centre, as the Seed is lowered into place Eden seed top view Baldwins' Liebherr LTM 11000 D lowering the Seed into the Eden Project's education centre Eden seed side view