How Load 28 undertook its award-winning lift and install of a curtain facade in Adelaide.
Load 28 Crane Hire was recently contracted to lift and install a ‘curtain facade’ in Adelaide. The client, Commercial & General, approached Load 28 with the challenge to lift and install the facade on one elevation and in one lift.
The curtain measured 50 metres long and 20 metres high and the lift was the largest screen of this type installed in Australia, in one lift. The attached lift planning documents, indicate our method to lift the curtain.
Load 28 completed the lift in a dual lift configuration, slowly lifting the curtain evenly in order to avoid damaging the curtain.
“In consultation meetings with the client, the site engineer selected the lifting points we were to use, in order to keep the top hanging beam rigid for installation,” Marcus Rigney, Operations Manager at Load 28, said.
For the lift, Load 28 utilised our Liebherr mobile cranes, the LTM 1070 and a LTM 1095 and 2 x15 metre spreader bars. The total curtain weight total was 2.5 tonnes and the rigging equipment weighed 1.0 tonne.
“The mobile cranes were setup in street and a 125-foot elevated work platform was positioned in the centre to reach the north side of the building and the roof top was used to access the south side,” he said.
There were a number of complicating issues with the site.
The lift was conducted in a slow controlled lift, ensuring the curtain remained flat and even and the curtain was bolted in the centre and moving outwards to each end. The cranes were positioned on a side street, and setup to fit within this street and the 95-tonne mobile was positioned carefully in order to be able to slew around a tree to fit the counterweight, and without restricting access to Angas Street.
“We had quite an audience on the day with our client and representation from Kaynemaile (the New Zealand company) in attendance to watch. The client was very happy with the result, and it was quite amazing to watch the sheer size of this screen being hoisted into position,” Rigney said.
The method of installation and lift was documented in a risk assessment as was the communication between cranes. Roles and responsibilities for the lift were clearly communicated in a toolbox talk prior to commencing the lift.