Australia, C&L, Cranes & Lifting, Features, Projects, Victoria

Advancing Victorian Infrastructure

As part of the Victoria’s Regional Rail Revival, Advanced Cranes was subcontracted to perform 16 lifts on bridge beams weighing over 100 tonnes. Project Manager Steve Malkiewicz and Lift Engineer Jaber Hassani provide technical insights to the 16 dual lifts that took place over one weekend.
Advanced Cranes recently completed a series of dual lifts on the Surf Coast Highway level crossing removal project in Victoria's southwest.

With a high-stake job comes the need for professional, competent, efficient contractors; and, with over one billion dollars invested, more than 1300 new jobs, and potential relief for over 29,000 commuters per day, the Surf Coast Highway level crossing removal represents a high-stake job.

With the level crossing in place, the boom gates would be down for 22 per cent of the morning peak and 15 per cent of the evening. Also facilitating the accessibility for more modern trains, the new Surf Coast Highway rail bridge represents an integral infrastructure development within Victoria’s Regional Rail Revival. A key part of the job, however, was the lifting and placement of 16 plus-100-tonne L-shaped bridge beams; and, with a recent proficiency demonstrated by its work on a major level crossing removal project, Advanced Cranes was called on to supply the craneage and on ground staff to complete the lifting operations.

Founded in 2009, Advanced Cranes is based in three depots located in Ballarat, Derrimut and Bell Park. The family-owned crane hire company provides access to a large range of high-quality machinery for a wide range of clients conducting across the Southeast of Australia. For Project Manager of the Waurn Ponds operation, Steve Malkiewicz, the professional performance of the Advanced Cranes team within tight time constraints, close collaboration required with other teams working in the same space, and efficient nature of the lifts represented the high standards the team consistently exhibits. 

“Because of the four-night timeframe and the Highway’s general traffic requirements, there were a range of other contractors occupying the same space as us,” he said. “Working in collaboration with the surrounding teams that totalled over 40 people was essential to ensure we all completed our jobs in an appropriate time frame.”

Advanced Cranes recently completed a series of dual lifts on the Surf Coast Highway level crossing removal project in Victoria's southwest.
Four of the beams weighed in at 101 tonnes, while the other 12 weighed in at 112 tonnes.

The 16 bridge beams lifted by Advanced Cranes, when assembled, form part of a new 1700-tonne rail bridge. Individually, there were four beams weighing 101 tonnes comprising of a length of 24.5m, and twelve beams that weighed 112 tonnes measuring in at 27m long. The client required Advanced Cranes to lift all the bridge beams across four nights over a weekend, starting on the Friday night. To facilitate this, the beams were transported by an external company to the job site each day from their manufacturing facility in Laverton. Aiding the operation was a team of seven skilled Advanced Cranes team members who were constantly on site: two operators, four riggers, and one supervisor. Despite the time pressure, the Advanced Cranes team was able to finish well within schedule and, according to Lift Engineer Jaber Hassani, could have been finished ahead of time if the logistical process allowed it.

“Four bridge beams were delivered per night for us to lift, and we needed to wait until the next night to get moving on the next part of the project” he said. “We completed all our lifting within a two-hour window, between 11pm-1am.”

With cranes ranging in capacity from its 800-tonne slewing Liebherr through to its 3-tonne Maeda crawler crane and everything in between, one might be forgiven for wondering about the reasons driving the decision to perform a dual lift. For Jaber, however, the answer can be drawn back to the ultimate principle in the lifting industry: safety.

Logistically, the process of transporting the counterweight was as efficient as it could be for Steve and the team, using 16 trucks to transport the necessary equipment during the day on Friday to avoid any crossover with the other teams working in the area. Also deploying one of the company’s Franna pick-and-carry cranes to help set up the two Liebherr cranes, the preparation of the two Liebherr cranes was an altogether smooth process for Steve and the team.

“The main challenge of the work was working around the other teams,” he said. “We needed to be mindful of the scaffolding around us when we were lifting, but the VarioBallast feature on our Liebherr cranes allowed us to navigate those problems relatively easily.”

As previously mentioned, when conducting the lifts, Advanced Cranes configured its two machines in such a way to change its minimum radius mid-operation. After lifting the beams past the surrounding scaffolding, the operator was able to adjust the position of the counterweight, allowing the crane to operate at an extended maximum radius and place the bridge beams perfectly. According to Advanced Cranes’ Lift Engineer Jaber Hassani, the VarioBallast feature came in clutch for the team on site.

“With the VarioBallast feature, we’re able to adjust the counterweight from inside the cabin with the load still on the hook,” he said. “Ultimately, this helped us save our client a lot of time when it came to performing these lifts, because we could navigate the obstacles around us.”

To enable the safe lifting of the bridge beams, the operating team concocted an in-house lift plan that had the 450-tonne Liebherr crane operating at a maximum radius of 19m and the 700-tonne crane operating at 22m thanks to its larger lifting capacities. Thanks to the VarioBallast system featured in the Liebherr series, Jaber and the team were able to plan for an adjusting minimum radius that provided the crane with extra capacity and flexibility when needed.

After completing the work in the allotted time with no hitches and an entirely safe procedure, the team at Advanced Cranes came in for some high praise from the client who engaged its services, with the Victorian contractor praising the team’s efficiency and professionalism on site. For Steve, however, the dual lifts completed for the Surf Coast Highway rail project is representative of the high standard of the operations conducted by Advanced Cranes.

“We’ve got an experienced team behind us,” he said, “and we pride ourselves on facilitating these bigger lifts for the important infrastructure projects that are designed to improve Regional Victoria.” 

READ MORE:

Advanced Cranes recently completed a series of dual lifts on the Surf Coast Highway level crossing removal project in Victoria's southwest.
Advanced Cranes configured the 450-tonne crane with full counterweight, while the 700-tonne crane was configured with 135 tonnes of counterweight.
Send this to a friend