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Smith Cranes was engaged by Savory Construction to assist with the installation of air conditioning units at the Manawa Bay Shopping Centre in Auckland. The air conditioning units weighed around 2.7 tonnes and with hook and rigging included, the required lift was 3.15 tonnes.
The site is located less than one kilometre from the Auckland Airport runway. Civil aviation imposed an obstacle limit surface of 45 metres above ground level at this location. This limits the heights at which a crane can operate.
If the obstacle limit surface has to be exceeded, there is a 90-day approval period, which did not meet the client’s program requirements.
Using a 400 tonne mobile crane with luffing jib was not possible, as it would significantly breach the obstacle limit surface during erection and still remain above it during the lift.
Smith Cranes proposed the use of a LR1280 Crawler Crane, with 25.7 metres of main boom, and 77 metre luffing jib. This allowed the crane to be assembled and operated entirely below the obstacle limit surface, before allowing an immediate start.
The 77 metre jib was used for the lifts at 95 metre radius. Due to the constraints of the site, the crane could only operate between approximately 93 and 95 metre radius, so it was tracked to allow the installation of the larger radius units.
The jib was then shortened to 53 metres to allow the remaining lifts to be undertaken. In this configuration, the crane could reach between 55 and 70 metre radius for the remaining installs.
Smith Cranes was able to plan and mobilise the site in under 10 days of a requests from the client, including moving the luffing jib from Christchurch.