Borger Cranes‘ heavy lift capabilities have never been in question. GM, Shawn Borger, provides insights into the company’s fleet expansion and some of the major projects the company has worked on.
“As I have always said, Borger Crane Hire and Rigging continues to invest in cranes that provide our clients with the most up to date capacities and technology to assist with best possible outcomes on their projects.
“Over the years we have worked on all the major infrastructure projects in New South Wales and with these opportunities we could see how these projects were likely to evolve and how this would lead to significant demand for heavy lift capacities,” he said.
“Today, projects involving Tunnel Boring Machines for example, demand heavy lift capacity and infrastructure projects are being designed and engineered with faster construction methodology using far larger components requiring fewer but significantly heavier lifts from the cranes,” said Shawn.
“The infrastructure sector has been a major focus for the business for many years and will continue to be so. More recently, the Renewable Energy Sector and its requirements for heavy lift cranes has been a growing focus for the business. Our latest purchase the, Liebherr LG1750, is the ideal crane for wind turbine installation and maintenance,” said Shawn.
Borger Crane Hire and Rigging has been working with Tier One and major builders for many years. Understanding what future projects will look like has enabled Shawn and his teams to invest in the right technology to meet clients’ requirements. Currently, Borger Cranes has an all-terrain crane fleet of two 300-tonne capacity machines, two 400-tonne capacity cranes. two 500-tonne capacity cranes, two 700-tonners, a 750-tonne lattice boom mobile crane, and an 800-tonne all-terrain crane. On the crawler front, Borger Cranes has invested in one 600-tonne crawler and one 600-tonne narrow track crawler crane.
“Borgers have worked with clients such as John Holland, CPB, Fulton Hogan, Accionna and many others for over 20 years and we have great relationships across all of their teams,” said Shawn.
“The Port Botany Rail Duplication project in Sydney has seen some major lifts involving our 500-tonne, 700-tonne and 800-tonne all terrains along with our Liebherr LR1600 lattice boom crawler. These cranes have been utilised to complete lifts over 150 tonnes.
“Our clients rely on the experience and professionalism within our teams to assist them to complete the works safely and on time. In some cases, these projects are high risk with very short windows available for our teams to complete the lifts. Time and again, we have delivered these projects in full, on time and within budget, which continues to generate high levels of confidence in the abilities of Borger Crane Hire and Rigging,” said Shawn.
Shawn explained how the Borger Heavy Lift fleet is geographically located.
“Our heavy lift fleet is predominately based in our Sydney and Brisbane depots so we can cater for our client’s requirements along the east coast. As you can imagine, a fleet of heavy lift cranes requires a lot of space to house the crane components and we have strategically purchased property in locations which makes the mobilisation of the cranes cost effective and provides us with the ability to establish the crane on site with accuracy and precision,” said Shawn. “All of this is designed to save the client money through shortening the crane’s mobilisation and demobilisation times and delivering the lift with precision.”
Borger Crane Hire and Rigging’s Heavy Lift Team is full of experience and the cranes themselves are spread across the Sydney and Brisbane operations.
“Our Heavy Lift Team has plenty of experience and is led by Nathan Borger. The team includes Matthew Steain, Adam Little, Adam Courtney, Casey Doyle, and Logan Alexander. This team is responsible for coordinating the heavy lifts across the East Coast,” said Shawn. “To assist with the number of projects across New South Wales and Queensland, we have situated the cranes on the following basis. In NSW we have two 400-tonne all terrains, one 500-tonne all terrain, one 700-tonne all terrain, one 800-tonne all terrain, and the new Liebherr LG 1750 lattice boom all terrain.
“In Queensland we have one 350-tonne all terrain, one 500-tonne all terrain, one 700-tonne all terrain. There will be another new addition arriving in mid-January 2024 which will be our second Liebherr LG 1750 lattice boom all terrain,” he said.
“Queensland is starting to ramp up the preparations for the 2032 Olympic Games with significant amounts of major infrastructure projects commencing in the rail sector and with construction beginning on the major stadiums.
“The last 12 years has seen Borger Cranes working on the $20 billion Sydney Metro Projects and this has certainly provided great opportunities for our teams to broaden their experience in managing major infrastructure projects,” said Shawn.
“Across both states we are also heavily focused on the wind industry and will look to expand our operations in this space along with major renewable projects which require heavy lift capabilities,” he said.
An important element of Borger’s heavy lift capabilities is the Borger Heavy Lifting Engineering team, said Shawn.
“Behind the scenes, we operate a drafting and engineering team which assists with site pre-planning, lift studies in accordance with design details and site parameters which helps determine the correct capacity crane and the lifting equipment required.
“Generally speaking, the planning for our heavy lifts is managed by our Sydney team led by Stephen Bush including Erika Hung and Engineer Leo Tang, but we also have a heavy lift drafting team in Brisbane. Without these teams, we wouldn’t be executing lifts with the precision we pride ourselves on.
“We always follow design lifting details provided by the supplier which minimises the possibility of any incidents occurring. With heavy lift cranes, some jobs are planned months in advance; however, if we have to act at short notice and we have the cranes available, our crews will readily adapt and have our cranes onsite as requested,” he said.
Mobilising a Heavy Lift fleet involves massive logistical support, which includes prime movers, specialist trailers and rigging equipment. Ensuring the equipment arrives on site in the correct sequence is critical.
“We have dedicated team members who program the delivery of the crane and the various components that go with it. This takes considerable planning given the Liebherr LG1750 requires approximately 80 semi-trailers to mobilise to site.
“Our Logistics Team, led by Robert Buekers, meticulously plan the logistics involved in mobilising our heavy lift fleet ensuring everything turns up to site, on time and in the right sequence so we are ready to lift on time. This is a very complex process, and they are dealing with so many variables given the number of lifts the company is completing every day,” he said. “They have to ensure every piece of equipment is available for the mobilisation and demobilisation, so we are on site and off again quickly and efficiently. When you consider we are operating over 300 cranes, 50 prime movers and over 300 trailers, this is no mean feat,” said Shawn.
One significant advantage for the Borger Heavy Lift team are the dedicated trailers for each of the cranes.
“Over the years we have worked closely with TRT who design and manufacture dedicated trailers for our cranes. We understand the importance of having specific support vehicles that carry counterweights, outrigger pads and lifting gear.
“Safety is designed into our trailers with each counterweight loaded onto the trailer in a designated position to avoid any axle being overloaded and ensuring National Heavy Vehicle Regulator compliance,” he said. “These are dynamic times for the business and the industry in general, and we will continue to invest in the very latest technology, not only in the heavy lift capacities but across the entire fleet.
“The arrival of the new Kobelco crawler cranes through the Baden Davis Crane Connection is testament to this ongoing strategy which hopefully ensures we have the right crane and lifting solution to meet our clients requirements.”
READ MORE:
- Borger Cranes acquire six new Kobelco crawlers through Baden Davis.
- Big lifts in Borger Cranes’ wind farm work.
- Borger Cranes’ Queensland expansion continues.
