Metcalf Cranes has deployed its Demag AC100-4L all-terrain crane on Melbourne Water’s Hobsons Bay Main Sewer Project.
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Contracted by national construction company, John Holland, to complete the lifts, Metcalf’s 100-tonne capacity all-terrain crane lifted a 9.9-tonne, 9.5m-long wye piece down a 30m shaft.
Making the lift complex was the unique configuration of the wye piece: with an apparent weight and structural imbalance, Metcalf needed to design a unique rigging configuration to ensure the load could be stably controlled as it descended down the 30m shaft. To achieve this, the Victorian crane hire company designed a rigging arrangement that utilised three main connection points to a spreader beam to evenly distribute the load.
The Demag AC100-4L possesses a maximum lifting capacity of 100 tonnes that it can lift at a radius of two metres and a boom length of 12m. Furthermore, the machine possesses a maximum main boom length of 59.4m that can be extended to 78.4m with jib extensions, giving the machine a maximum operating radius (with main boom only) of 52m at which it can lift 0.8 tonnes.
The 100-tonne all-terrain crane also features compact dimensions of 10.6m in length, 3.9m in height, and 3.7m in width, making the crane highly applicable for urban, congested job sites requiring high performance in tight environments. At the Hobsons Bay Main Sewer Project, the crane’s dimensions came in particularly useful.
The project is being delivered by John Holland on behalf of Melbourne Water. The sewer, initially constructed in the 1960s, is responsible for transferring 30 per cent of Melbourne’s wastewater to the Western Treatment Plant and is now reaching the end of its lifecycle, hence the construction of a new sewer to rehabilitate the existing one.