ALE COMPLETES LIFTING OPERATIONS AT EARLS COURT

ALE has completed their heavylifting operations for the Earls Court project in London, UK.

ALE was contracted by Keltbray to use its innovative heavylifting crane, the AL.SK190, to lift 61 portal beams, weighing between 100t – 1,500t, out from the London Underground and over the District Line. During the project ALE performed the largest single lift undertaken in UK history by a land based crane when lifting the heaviest beam weighing 1,500t – the equivalent of 118 London buses – in just 2.5 hours in June.

The beams were lifted using the AL.SK190 between March – October overnight in ‘engineering hours’. A total of 21,016t was lifted with a total outreach change of 1,393m in the 195-day lifting window. The crane was positioned in one single location, which meant that less site space was taken up, downtime was reduced, less ground bearing pressure was placed on the Underground tunnels, and it avoided the time-consuming movement of multiple crawler cranes.

The crane was specifically chosen for this project as it provided the optimum engineering solution to minimise the impact on local residents, to help reduce the carbon footprint of the project and significantly shorten the enabling works timescales by two years. Furthermore, as the crane can operate in higher wind speeds, the operational window was widened.

Jon Mallory, Design Engineering Manager for ALE, said: “We are proud to be involved in such a landmark project and provide an innovative solution to match. By choosing this crane, that could remain in one lifting position, it delivered a more favourable engineering solution that was one-of-a-kind and more cost and time-efficient. “The effective co-operation and communication between all parties involved and the team effort all-round contributed to the successful, timely and safe completion of the project.”

Now the final lift has been executed, ALE is currently dismantling the crane.
These operations were part of a wider project involving a joint venture between Capital & Counties Properties PLC (Capco) and Transport for London (TfL). The Earls Court project is now moving to the next stages of site preparation, ahead of the construction of new homes.