A cranage solution to withstand the ‘Fremantle Doctor’
A cranage solution to withstand the ‘Fremantle Doctor’
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Located 40 kilometres south of Perth, this AU$511 million Waste to Energy Project is the second large-scale waste to energy (WtE) plant to be built in Australia.
After our client was awarded the lead contract for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) on the project in 2019, they contacted Marr Contracting to work with them to develop a heavy lifting strategy and cranage solution to support their planned modular construction methodology.
We work with our clients to find a craneage solution that works – no matter how big or complex the job is.
Located in a high wind area close to the coast, the climatic conditions of the greenfield site posed a number of challenges that our client wished to address based on their experiences constructing similar projects. Their primary concern was to find a solution that would decrease the number of lifting activities on the project and reduce the risks that wind played in this region of Western Australia where the ‘Freemantle Doctor’ afternoon sea breeze often blows at a rate of 20 knots (37km) per hour.
“We contacted Marr at the initial planning stage because they had a solution that would minimise interface and project risk with a ‘one size fits all’ crane,” said the project’s Construction Manager.
Working closely with our client’s construction team during the early stages of the project, we were able to design a simple craneage solution that reduced the number of cranes required. This reduced congestion onsite and allowed for pre-assemblies at ground level, which reduced the number of activities at height and improved onsite safety.
We also completed an analysis of historical wind data which indicated that the project was at risk of having its crane lifting operations impacted by wind on 75 per cent of days across a 12-month period if a traditional crawler or mobile crane methodology was adopted. This figure increased to over 90 per cent of days being wind-affected during the summer months – highlighting that a different approach to lifting was required if the project’s craneage solution was to be successful.
Marr’s solution – using a 330-tonne capacity M2480D Heavy Lift Luffer (HLL) stood on one of our ballasted static bases and crane mat system – allowed critical lifts, weighing up to 150 tonnes, to be completed by a single crane from a fixed location. With a total site coverage of over 32,000 square meters and an ability to place 25 tonnes anywhere within the crane’s 102-meter radius, we were able to open up areas of the site for pre-assemblies and lay-down. This helped to significantly reduce congestion across the site.
The ability of the M2480D to work unaffected in wind speeds up to 20 meters a second, (which is double that of a traditional crawler or mobile crane approach), meant that we could de-risk the planned lifting operations from the delays that we had identified early in the crane planning process.
Marr’s M2480D crane solution delivered a simple, ‘clean’ crane solution to the project team that:
