Crane hire company, Marr Contracting has been awarded the contract to return in late July to the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset, England.
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Upon Marr Contracting’s return, the world’s largest luffing tower crane – the Marr 2480D has been deployed to accelerate construction on the nuclear power station.
Marr Contracting previously worked with English-based infrastructure company, Balfour Beatty on the Point C Tunneling and Marine project.
Recently, Marr were approached by the EDF (Électricité de France SA) to deliver improvements and specialised heavy lift crane services.
The M2480D was chosen to assist the project due to a myriad of reasons, such as; its heavy lifting capacity, reach and coverage.
The M2480D can lift up to 330-tonnes at a 15m radius and can lift 100-tonnes to a 45m radius with around 130 meters of hook height and no support ties.
“Putting the M2480D inside the building means there’s far less disruption to other teams in the vicinity. We previously had to work around the movements of the crawler cranes and during a series of workshops, we identified this solution as one of the biggest things we could improve on, learning from our experiences on Unit 1,” said Hinkley Point C Project Manager, David Wylie.
With the M2480D’s ability operate in wind speeds of up to 20m per second, the luffing tower crane address the challenges of Hinkley Point C’s high wind risks, due to its costal location.
“It’s great to be returning to Hinkley Point C with a craneage solution that has significantly reduced complexity and will allow the focus to shift off the crane to productivity on the project,” said Steve Ryder, General Manager – International, Marr Contracting.
Installation M2480D commenced in early April of this year and is expected to be onsite until 2026.