Borger Crane Hire and Rigging recently deployed its Liebherr LR 1600/2 to complete a series of heavy lifts on the Botany Rail Duplication project.
The Australian Government is fully funding the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) to deliver the $400 million Port Botany Rail Line Duplication project, which will deliver better access to global export markets via Port Botany, improve freight supply chains across New South Wales and help ease local road congestion.
ARTC has awarded the major contracts to John Holland to design and construct the Port Botany Rail Line Duplication project, while the contract to deliver the Cabramatta Loop has been awarded to Fulton Hogan.
Borger Crane Hire and Rigging’s Supervisor Nathan Borger explains his company’s work on the project.
“We deployed our Liebherr LR 1600/2 to Robey Street in Mascot for the Botany Rail Distribution Project which is being managed by our client John Holland on behalf of the ARTC. We were lifting a series of railway bridge sections, some weighing up to 200t,” he said.
“We decided on the Liebherr LR 1600/2 crawler crane because of its 600t lifting capacity and because of the 32 metre radius we were lifting at, it was the obvious choice. We were operating with the 42m of main boom and Derrick Mast and the crane required the SuperLift.
“This made things more complex as the area we had to operate the crane in, was very tight,” said Nathan.
The LR 1600/2, one of Liebherr’s successful crawler cranes, was primarily designed and used for wind power jobs and the first one was delivered in summer 2008.
Along with the standard version, a version with narrow crawler track, known as the LR 1600/2-W, was also marketed successfully over ten years.
The main feature of this version was the fact that it could travel along narrow crawlers in wind farms considerably more easily than the standard version.
The narrow track version accounted for around one-quarter of all these cranes in worldwide use.
Initially, the LR 1600/2 was delivered in its SL4DFB configuration, designed for wind turbines with a hub height of 130 to 135 metres. In this configuration, the crane had a main boom of 138 metres and a fixed jib of 12 metres. This was the benchmark for turbines with a hub height of 135 metres.
Over the next few years, however, the size of wind turbines increased dramatically, up to hub heights of 150 metres or more.
This altered the criteria for the crane, which Liebherr’s designers followed.
The lifting capacities and hoisting heights of the boom systems were continuously modified with the SL10 and SL13 versions, which both became established on the market.
These booms enabled the crane to handle wind turbines with hub heights of 150 metres.
However, the LR 1600/2 was not just used for wind power, it was also used in industry and for infrastructure projects shortly after the first one was delivered.
Often equipped with either a ballast wagon or suspended ballast, the 600t capacity crane impressed users with its lifting ability.
Over the years, Liebherr unveiled more innovations for its crawler crane portfolio, such as the B2 guide and VarioTray for suspended ballast, which eliminates the complicated stacking and unstacking of ballast slabs by simply disconnecting a whole ballast pallet.
Nathan said there were some challenges in deploying a crane of that size to Mascot.
“Deliveries in and out of Mascot, in a live environment with airport traffic and permit hours, ensured we planned the job meticulously and involved all stakeholders as well as the community. 40 trucks, trailers and support vehicles were required for the project,” he said.
“There were also complications building the crane in terms of available space. It was all very tight, and we needed to build the crane in the correct order, otherwise it would have been easy to crowd the build area and get stuck with components in the wrong place and in the way.
“We deployed our 400t and 250t capacity Grove all terrains for the build of the LR 1600/2,” he said.
Planning for the lift started six months prior to the lift says Nathan.
“We had countless meetings and consultation with our client and engineers/consultants to plan the works and obtain all the required permits.
“There were significant considerations when planning the lift, including ground stability with the block wall beside us and major services that ran below the cranes’ location.
Executing the lift
It took Borger Crane Hire and Rigging seven nights to mobilise the LR 1600/2, complete the lifts and then demobilise the crane – with the works completed under an ARTC posession for 48 hours.
“As a result of the meticulous planning and the procedures we had in place, the lift went extremely well,” Nathan said.
“The crane performed really well lifting at approximately 85% of its charts and we had no issues whatsoever.”
The project will help meet future demand at Port Botany, where the freight task is predicted to increase by 77 per cent by 2036.
“The Botany Rail Duplication will duplicate the remaining 2.9 kilometre section of single line track between Mascot and Botany.
“The 1.65km Cabramatta Loop will allow freight trains up to 1,300-metres in length travelling in either direction on the Southern Sydney Freight Line to pass each other,” he said.
ARTC chief executive Mark Campbell said the project would be transformative for the area.
“Not only will this increase freight capacity, it will also encourage more freight movements to be made by rail – helping to shift freight away from road transport and reduce the rate of growth in truck movements and traffic congestion,” he said.
Both projects will also provide a much-needed boost to the economy as the two major contractors as well as their subcontractors are anticipated to employ more than 620 personnel at peak construction period.
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