The first job for Melrose Crane and Riggings’ new Grove GMK5250 XL-1 was always intended to be a wharf crane dismantle scheduled to commence on the 20th of November 2020.
However, on the Wednesday afternoon prior, Melrose received an emergency call from Nowra Cranes, who needed a 250 tonne crane to recover a loaded, refrigerated beer Pantech that had gone over the side of Moss Vale Road, on the hairpin bends leading into Kangaroo Valley. The NSW Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) was pushing to do the job on the same evening, which was logistically impossible.
Damien Ellison from Melrose Crane and Rigging attended site early Thursday morning to conduct a full logistical analysis. The section of road where the recovery was to take place is narrow and dangerous, with road cambers that only add to the degree of difficulty for heavy vehicles.
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The RMS agreed to close the road from 7pm – 4am that night and the new Grove was mobilised. The truck weighing approximately 23t was on its side, in dense bush about 25m down a steep incline.
“With the assistance of Nowra Crane’s Franna and some complicated rigging, my crew successfully salvaged the wreck, however I’m not too sure if all the kegs were recovered,” Melrose Crane and Rigging Managing Director Gregg Melrose said.
“The job was completed with time to spare and a fresh crew delivered the new crane to Botany in plenty of time to set up on Friday morning for its second job. My thanks to our dogman Drew Hood who was heavily involved on the project and took the images.”