Description:
Pollock Cranes was engaged by Oxcon/CLL Service & Solutions to supply our 70-ton Sennebogen 673 E for the purpose of assisting the construction team with building columns for bridge beams to follow. The difficulty of this project was the live rail network that ran through the project used to access the Ports of Auckland.
The project was split into two sections. The first section included the live rail lines. The 70-ton Telecrawler completed the building of all piers within this section. The crossing of the live rail network for cranes and transport had to be completed under a KiwiRail block of line. A date was set to lift the first four beams into position on the western side of the rail network.
Four bridge beams, with an approximate tare weight of 56 ton each, were lifted from beam delivery transport and placed into position over a two-day period.
The next phase of the project was scheduled to be completed over Queen’s Birthday Weekend. This was the only time the project was able to have a KiwiRail block of line, allowing for three continuous days of lifting with all plant to be removed from site before 4pm on the Monday.
On the Friday prior to long weekend, Pollock Cranes mobilised the GMK 6400 into a lift position on the western side of the rail corridor, complete with 135 ton of counterweight – because of the proximity to the live rail network, the Megawing attachment could not be fitted until the block of line commenced.
At 8am on the Saturday morning, the block of line commenced and the Megawing attachment was fitted. Beams were delivered into position and the 400-ton mobile lifted the first two 64-ton bridge beams over the rail network into position on the pier heads.
Once the beams where lifted into position, the Pollock Cranes team were required to shift the crane to the eastern side of the rail. This would entail the removal of the Megawing attachment and all 135 ton of counterweight so the crane could access across the rail network. Because of the restricted site dimensions, this phase of the project was completed using the Pollock Cranes Heavy Haulage division, allowing for increased payloads of counterweight and only requiring a total of four support units, instead of the usual eight.
Over the next two days, the 400 ton was shifted onsite three more times, which required a repeat of the above actions. This would not have been possible without the assistance of the Heavy Haulage team.
By 10am on the Monday, a total of two pier heads, weighing approximately 24 ton each, and 12 bridge beams, ranging in weight from 56 to 64 ton each, had been lifted into position from four different set ups.
All plant was demobilised from site by 12pm on the Monday, four hours before the KiwiRail block of line finished.
