Tower crane manufacturer Gru Comedil (now Terex Comedil) of Italy this month ships four of its top-of-the-range CTL 400 luffing jib tower cranes to its UK distributor Select Tower Cranes.
The order follows the success of the first two CTL 400 luffers which have been working on the Royal Opera House in London since April 1997 (Reach for the sky Aug97, p14).
The new units will be used for construction of a high rise building (project name DS 5) at Canary Wharf in London. Two of these cranes will be internally climbed, the other two will climb externally up to 200m high. They will be erected with 50m jib, 8.2t tip load and 24t maximum capacity.
The CTL 400 features an equilibrating counterweight cradle suspended from the 8.5m counter-jib, a legacy of designer Franc Jost’s short time with Comedil.
Select, part of the O’Rourke Group, has also ordered six 330tm and 630tm flat-top cranes. More than 40 units of these models have been shipped by Comedil since their launch last year, including to France, Algeria, Singapore, Hong Kong and the USA.
Two CTT 561 models will be erected in Manchester with 50m and 60m jibs and two CTT 331 will be used in London for construction of a SmithKline Beecham head office.
One of these CTT 331s will be erected to a height of 86m. Their maximum capacity is 32t and they can lift 3t on maximum jib length of 85m.
Comedil, part of Terex Towers since last year, said that the biggest advantage of these cranes was the free-standing height of up to 92.3m.
