Eight topless Potains and a self-erector share the airspace over a seven-building Belgrade site
Serbian dealer K.I.G.O. has supplied nine Potain tower cranes to the Nemanjin Grad mixed-use development outside Belgrade, where overlapping working areas across seven buildings made topless machines the logical choice.
Nine cranes over seven buildings
The Nemanjin Grad complex on the outskirts of Belgrade will combine residential, business and community space a short distance from the city centre. Building it is a fleet of nine Potain tower cranes supplied by K.I.G.O., the Serbian dealer and a division of Ferokov, which represents Potain across several Balkan countries.
The line-up is drawn largely from the topless range: three MDT 219s, four MDT 178s and an MDT 128, supported by a Potain Hup 40-30 self-erecting crane. Between them the cranes handle steel sections and concrete pours across the seven buildings, and will stay on to serve façade, roof and finishing work ahead of completion at the end of this year.
Why topless on this site
With seven structures rising at once, several cranes have overlapping working areas — in places two or more. A topless crane has no A-frame or tie bars above the jib, which shortens the vertical separation needed between machines and lets them be positioned closer together and slewed past one another with less choreography. On a dense multi-building site that translates directly into fewer waiting movements.
Hook heights across the fleet range from 34.9 m to 61.8 m, with jib lengths set between 35 m and 65 m.
“With multiple structures to build, we wanted to use cranes that could complete the project on time with the greatest efficiency. That’s why choosing Potain topless cranes made sense. In many instances, there are two or more cranes with overlapping work areas, so the cranes’ more compact working areas save time and money. Also, with Potain frequency converter technology combined with the Crane Control System (CCS), we have fast and accurate load handling.”
— Sebastian David, general manager, K.I.G.O.
Planning the way out
K.I.G.O. is providing full service support, covering installation, routine maintenance and technical assistance, backed by Manitowoc’s regional customer support headquarters in Dardilly, France. Ferokov is already working on the dismantling sequence — a familiar problem on tight urban sites, where the space available for taking a crane down disappears as the buildings around it are completed.
“There will be limited space available for tower crane dismantling once construction is finished, but we planned well in advance to ensure our mobile cranes and trucks can complete the work. Potain topless cranes are designed for easy and fast assembly and disassembly, which will also help smooth the process.”
— Sebastian David, general manager, K.I.G.O.
Source: Manitowoc — Photos: Manitowoc
Crane facts
- Fleet: 3 x Potain MDT 219, 4 x MDT 178, 1 x MDT 128, 1 x Hup 40-30
- Type: Eight topless top-slewing cranes plus one self-erecting crane
- Hook heights: 34.9 m to 61.8 m
- Jib lengths: 35 m to 65 m
- Controls: Frequency converter drives with CCS
Project
- Development: Nemanjin Grad, outskirts of Belgrade, Serbia
- Scope: Seven buildings — residential, business and community use
- Completion: End of 2026
- Dealer: K.I.G.O., a division of Ferokov
- Support: Manitowoc regional HQ, Dardilly, France