Crane

London's 'largest' crane built for 8,000 home development



London’s ‘largest’ crane is set to begin work on an 8,000-home development in Earls Court.


The 120m-high, heavy-lifting crane – designed and manufactured by engineering specialist ALE – will be used to extract 61 concrete ‘portal beams’ which supported the recently demolished exhibition centre.

The beams weigh between 80 and 1,500 tonnes – the latter weighing the same as 118 London busses.

The crane is reported to have the largest lifting capacity ever used in the capital.

Once complete, the site will play host to thousands of homes, a new high street and a five-acre park as part of the development led by Capital & Counties Properties (Capco).

Mike Hood, group development director at Capco, said: “We are making good progress at Earls Court to prepare the site for future development.

“The heavy-lifting crane is the most visible part of this work and will be part of the London skyline for the next year.”

Demolition of the Earls Court Exhibition Centre took two years and was overseen by contractor Keltbray.

The first beam lifts will take place later this month, operating overnight in ‘engineering hours’ after the last District Line underground train has passed through the tunnels underneath the beams.

An innovative lifting technique will reduce the time needed for the enabling work by two years.

Work is expected to conclude by the end of 2017, at which point the crane will be dismantled.

David Rowe, technical manager for Keltbray, added: “By utilising this crane and lifting method, disruption is minimised and the crane’s high capacity and precision-lifting technology will reduce the overall project timescale considerably.

“With the successful demolition of the former exhibition centres last year, the lifting of the large portal beams is the next big task at Earls Court as we prepare the site for construction.

“The project team has worked tirelessly to ensure the most appropriate technology was chosen and implemented in order to minimise disruption to our neighbours.”



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