CRANES AND LIFTING: February/March 2018

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AUSTRALIAN INNOVATION • Humma does it again • A decade of dedication • No stopping Cheryl Woodhart

INSIDE

At its finest

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018

AUSTRALIAN INNOVATION At its finest

CONTENTS | FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018

12 HIGH ON CRANES A perfect marriage

7 24 38

36 Q&A

There’s no stopping Cheryl Woodhart

14 CICA INDUSTRY REPORT 42 RIGGING From the president

Dealing with head height restrictions

17 TOP 50 UPDATE The new and improved

46 PROJECT

20 TOP 50 PROFILE

Teamwork for difficult Coffs Harbour precast job

ALE: local presence, worldwide footprint

RANES AND LIFTING 28 CCELEBRATES A decade of dedication

Cranes and Lifting is a media partner of

Senior Editor: Jacqueline Ong (jacqueline.ong@mayfam.net) Editor: Greg Keane (greg.keane@mayfam.net) Journalists: Jan Arreza (jan.arreza@mayfam.net), Simon Gould (simon.gould@mayfam.net), Patrick Lau (patrick@mayfam.net) Creative Director, Patterntwo Creative Studio: Toni Middendorf Advertising sales: Daniel Jessop (daniel.jessop@mayfam.net or 0401 781 712) Marketing and customer support: Benjamin May (ben.may@mayfam.net) Subscriptions: Email: subscriptions@mayfam.net Web: www.insideconstruction.com.au Publisher: Ross May (ross@mayfam.net or 0400 868 456) Office: Level 13, 333 George Street, Sydney, New South Wales 2000 Email: contact@mayfam.net Website: www.insideconstruction.com.au COPYRIGHT WARNING: All editorial copy and some advertisements in this publication are subject to copyright and may not be reproduced in any form without the written authorisation of the managing editor. Offenders will be prosecuted.

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EDITOR’S NOTE

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Find out more at insideconstruction.com.au

A convoluted history

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he astute amongst you (and that’s everyone, right?) will notice that our 10-year celebration is really 11 years but we say that, just as 13 is the baker’s dozen, 11 is the cranies’ version of 10 (or two booms in the air 11, as the bingo caller would say).

Regardless of the fancy rhetoric, 10 (or 11, if you insist) is a modest milestone for a crane mag. There is a long and varied history of crane coverage in Australia. Perhaps the first significant dedicated coverage was in the now defunct Earthmover and Civil Contractor (EMCC) magazine.

This was in an era when cranes were much smaller, tractor cranes and truck cranes up to 50t dominated the market, the Franna, mini crawler

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crane and all-terrain crane hadn’t surfaced; and the tele boom crawler crane market consisted of a 16t Kato. There were far more brands on the market than today, and the crane market in terms of units sold was bigger than today.

The EMCC feature became a stand-alone magazine in 1980-86, and then disappeared with a downturn in the market. By this time, the late Tod Kennedy wrote a crane feature for Construction Australia, a Thompson publication that was taken over by Reed and became Construction Contractor.

This was the official crane magazine at the time, and editor Chris Day started the Lift of the Year Awards and Con Popov Memorial Award for Industry Service in 1998.

When Aspermont bought WA magazine Western Contractor in 2004, that magazine covered cranes two to three times a year. The publication became national, was renamed Contractor to reflect its national coverage, and commenced a more substantial quarterly Cranes and Lifting feature from its inception.

This became a separately bound publication in 2007 and is what you see today under the relatively recent ownership of Mayfam Media. It only survives with the support of the industry, and for that we humbly thank you. Join us as we look back on the last 10 years from page 28.

Greg Keane greg.keane@mayfam.net

February/March 2018

POTAIN’S FIRST TOPLESS

HYDRAULIC LUFFING JIB

TOWER CRANE.

NEW MCH 125 MCH 125 Max capacity:

8 t/four-fall 4 t/two-fall

Max radius:

50 m

Max capacity at 50 m:

2t

Max capacity at 40m:

3t

Max line speed:

100 m/min

NEW VVH hydraulic luffing system The luffing jib can be completely raised to a near-vertical 87° angle in only two minutes

Perfect luffing for urban jobsites.

Leave overflight issues behind you The new Potain MCH 125 tower crane is exceptionally fast and easy to install and delivers optimum operator comfort and control. Performance and productivity are enhanced by a unique hydraulic luffing capability that allows lifting over buildings on congested jobsites.

Learn more at www.manitowoccranes.com/Potain, or www.manitowoccranes.com/Australia or call Andrew Gray 0409 757 451

Factory-installed components, including hydraulic system, make erection faster Only four containers or trucks are needed to transport the entire upper slewing section No wire reeving results in more efficient jib installation Vision cab installs on left or right, allowing the crane to be positioned closer to the building All mechanisms feature frequency variations Expert French engineering from the Potain Center of Excellence

SPONSORED CONTENT Where practical, there is commonality between models in the Humma pick and carry crane range.

Humma heralds a new era in pick and carry cranes Back in 1996, when Peter Dalla Riva issued the specification for the Humma crane to his engineers, he was looking into a future far beyond the first model, the 18-tonne Humma 18 released in 1997.

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his was quickly followed by the Humma 20 in 2000, Humma 25 in 2009 and Humma 35 in 2010. For Humma’s twentieth anniversary, the Humma 55 was released in December 2017.

Is this the end of the road in lift capacity?

Not according to Peter, who says, “It is the beginning of the heavy lift, high tech era of pick and carry cranes. There is no technical reason why a Humma 75 or Humma 100 could not be built to meet market demand. Look at the development of truck cranes over the past 20 years.”

The specification of the 1996 Humma was followed; with a standardised footprint for all models and air suspension that allows high and safe road speeds by dampening road conditions responsible for cabin noise, high wear of pivot points and cracking of welds.

Upgrades to the standard footprint were undertaken across the range of models, and these have all been incorporated in the 55t Humma 55. Where possible, identical componentry from

The ramp simulates a five-degree side slope, and demonstrates auto levelling capability of the suspension.

February/March 2018

the 35t Humma is used in the new 55t machine, greatly reducing the spare parts inventory.

In 2010, the Humma 35 moved ahead of its competitors in terms of both lift capacity and innovation. Now, the Humma 55 has leapt further ahead by introducing the world’s first auto levelling system. With auto levelling engaged, the crane can pick and carry on side slopes of up to 5 degrees without having the load chart derated. This provides greater flexibility in where pick and carry cranes can travel on site with a load, greatly improving the safety of operation by taking control away from the operator.

The Humma 55 has been designed with a major emphasis on safety by de-skilling the operations wherever possible. The auto levelling of up to 5 degrees not only compensates for uneven ground but also tyre deflation when loads are not at the centre line of the crane.

Peter explains the reason for the new level of technology as, “Remember that the loads being moved (with the Humma 55) exceed the Humma 35, hence load control must not

depend on the operator.

“The dynamic load charts on the twelve-inch screen give the driver a continuous visual report on the load, eliminating (separate load charts for) articulation zones and human error; and making the Humma 55 a very safe crane.”

The Humma 55 is at home on the highway, safely travelling at 85kph with a cabin noise of 65 decibels. On site, it is safely lifting and moving heavy loads, with winch hours and lift logs viewed on the display screens. This information can be downloaded to a USB stick if required.

The Humma 55 will be released to the market in 2018 after completion of testing at a WA mine site, according to Peter A. Dalla Riva, the Engineering Division Manager. He also confirmed that there is strong interest in the crane from a number of industries outside the core markets of mining and heavy construction.

When asked, “Where to now?”, Peter answered, “Well, robotic manufacture since we CL build everything in-house.”

Test loading of the Humma 55-25.

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NEWS

Kwik Logistics expands WA fleet

Kwik Logistics has grown its WA fleet, adding seven new machines.

News updates at www.insideconstruction.com.au

CRANE hire and transport services company Kwik Logistics has expanded on its fleet of cranes in light of an expected turnaround in the Western Australian construction market.

“The last couple of years in WA had been extremely tight and our business hurt just like the rest of the WA economy - we had reduced our crane fleet and people in the middle of 2016,” operations manager Gordon Smith-Gander said.

“But in about September last year, we started noticing things really picking up as far as projects go. We work on residential housing and commercial construction projects, and we also do a lot of fibreglass swimming pools. We probably cover 80-85% of the residential housing market in WA, and we’ve got a lot of Tom Thumbs and Frannas going around town every day, with some doing 10 jobs in a day.”

The company has gone from 20 cranes to 27 - adding several of the latest models of Grove 60s, 100s, 250s and 525s. According to Smith-Gander, they decided to go with the Groves due mainly to their boom length, especially with the 250s.

Looking to the future, Smith-Gander said the company will more than likely look at expanding their smaller crane fleet next.

CASAR AUSTRALIA NOW OPEN FOR BUSINESS CASAR Australia has commenced operations in Arundel, Queensland, under the leadership of managing director, Cheryl Vogler.

Strategically, the move was enabled to hold a large range of Casar high performance rope stocks to cover a variety of cranes and appoint a new Australia-wide distribution network.

Under the new marketing strategy, all mining business will be handled directly by Casar Australia, while crane ropes will be handled by an expanded network of distributors strategically located across the country.

“We provide a dedicated stock holding on the Gold Coast for our customers in the mining and crane markets, which will continue to be reviewed and expanded as the market dictates.

In the meantime, we have trained, experienced personnel and the latest NDT equipment to provide our mining and crane customers with ongoing testing and inspection services.”

Casar said.

TOWNSVILLE PORT INVESTS IN NEW CRANES THE Port of Townsville has received approval from the Queensland government to invest in new cranes and cargo handling infrastructure as part of the port’s Berth 4 redevelopment, which has so far cost $40.7 million.

The port will now fund a $27.3 million investment into the new equipment and infrastructure, allowing the Port to invest in its own cranes and cargo handling infrastructure to drive growth of container and general cargo at Berth 4 in the short to medium term The new cranes will arrive in the next 12 months while ship-to-shore cranes will land in two years.

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Ashley Thacker, general manager (left), and Ian Jongen, state manager.

RANGER GROWS LIFTING PROWESS MAKING no secret of its ambitions to become Australia’s biggest force within the lifting market, NSW-headquartered Ranger Lifting has started 2018 with a new facility in Victoria.

The Kensington site, 4km north-west of Melbourne’s CBD, opened on January 18 and is led by industry veteran Ian Jongen who has taken on the role of state manager Victoria.

The new facility will be stocked with $250,000 worth of products and house a 350t capacity press, testbed and mobile test truck.

Ranger noted that the building it’s leased is well suited to the manufacture and storage of the company’s range of slings, shackles, other below-the-hook equipment, and height safety solutions. It is anticipated that the site will also generate demand for custom products.

In NSW, Ranger is planning to move to a new warehouse three times the size of its existing location. It is also constantly evolving a fleet of distinctive vehicles and mobile testing trucks that remain the heartbeat of the business.

February/March 2018

Two new LTM 1750’s strengthening BOOM’s long term commitment to Wind Farm construction and maintenance in Australia

www.boomlogistics.com.au | 1300 36 2666

ABN 28 095 466 961 Boom Logistics Limited Level 1, 55 Southbank Boulevard Southbank VIC 3006 T +61 3 9207 2500 info@boomlogistics.com.au

KHL’S INTERNATIONAL ROUND-UP

Around the world with KHL Cranes and Lifting has partnered with supplier of international construction information KHL to bring you news from around the world. Here’s a snapshot of what’s been happening around the globe.

HUISMAN TESTS 3D PRINTED HOOK Specialist crane and subsea equipment manufacturer Huisman has manufactured an offshore crane hook using a 3D printer. The Dutch company said it is the first of its kind.

Not only that, it passed its 80t load test “and all associated quality control checks according to the strictest criteria,” Huisman said.

Forging or casting the steel are the usual methods of making a hook. The printed method uses the ‘wire and arc additive manufacturing’ (WAAM) process. The material is high tensile steel. Huisman said it can produce medium- to large-size components, for example, a large four-prong hook, weighing nearly a tonne.

Benefits, especially for large hooks, include shorter delivery time, a more consistent quality level and at a competitive price, Huisman said. The WAAM process can also be used to make other parts and components, especially ones with complex shapes. Development plans include further improving the WAAM process by reducing the cost price and to increase manufacturing capability to accommodate items up to 2.5t.

TURKISH MODEL CRANE BUILDING COMPETITION Turkish tower crane rental company and Potain dealer TeknoVinç sponsored a model crane building competition in Istanbul aimed at inspiring the country’s next generation of engineers.

The ‘Wood Tower Crane Competition’ was organised by Yıldız Technical University and featured 13 teams of expert students. Each team was tasked with building a small tower crane from wood, which was then evaluated on its uniqueness and tested using a 10 kg weight. TeknoVinç gifted the three winning teams a Potain MDT tower crane model, as well as book sets and prize money from the university.

TeknoVinç group director Sinan Türeyen was on the judging panel for the competition.

“At TeknoVinç we pride ourselves on helping the Turkish crane sector gain trained personnel, which is why cooperation with universities is so important,” he said.

“By sharing our experiences and knowledge, we are helping support the next generation of engineers.”

TeknoVinç sponsored a wooden tower crane-building competition in Istanbul for students.

Load testing the 80t Husiman 3D printed hook.

ALE COMPLETES NORWEGIAN RENEWABLE PROJECT ALE was contracted to engineer, deliver and install seven transformers, weighing approximately 225t each, for the NordLink Project in Tonstad, Norway.

ALE received the transformers at the Port of Kvinesdal and transported them to 70 km to Agder. It described the mountainous route as being ‘technically challenging’. ALE used its AL100 girder frame and 26 axle lines of conventional trailers to transport the transformers.

Paul Karlsen, ALE’s regional manager for Scandinavia, stated: “The complex route required comprehensive planning and engineering. The project showcased not only our utilisation of locally-based equipment but also our capabilities to provide flexible and multi-services in challenging conditions. We are proud to have successfully completed this project and want to thank everyone involved for their hard work throughout.”

The NordLink project will enable the exchange of renewable energies between the Norwegian and German power grids via a long distance high voltage direct current (HVDC) connection.

The project took approximately five months to complete.

CL

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February/March 2018

BRITISH STEEL CRANE RAILS FOR CHINESE PORT

ROLLS ROYCE MTU ENGINES FOR NEW DEMAGS

Steel producer British Steel has announced it is supplying crane rails for the Yangshan deep water facility, a £57 billion (A$101 billion) project that will enable the port of Shanghai, China, to handle container ships with depths of up to 15m.

The contract, for the fourth-phase of the Yangshan project, is being delivered through Steel CLIK - a major supplier in the crane rail market. British Steel said it has already supplied 4650 tonnes of steel for the Yangshan development, with a further 3000 tonnes to follow for the next phase.

British Steel’s crane rails are developed for overhead gantry and floor-mounted cranes in ports, warehouses and shipyards across the globe.

Peter Gate, managing director of British Steel’s Special Profiles business, said: “China offers us a great opportunity so we’re delighted to be bringing our products to market through Steel CLIK. “The Yangshan project is a highly prestigious development and, given the competition we faced, we’re immensely proud to have been awarded this contract.

MTU, a brand owned by Rolls-Royce, will supply engines to equipment manufacturer Terex Cranes for two new Demag models.

The Demag AC 300-6 will be powered by a Series 6R 1500/OM 473 engine, and the AC MTU’s 6R 1500/OM 473 will be used in the 45 City crane by a 6R 1000/OM 936 engine.

Demag AC 300-6.

MTU and Terex Cranes have a long history together, with MTU engines now powering 13 Terex and Demag crane models.

Dr. Aaron Haußmann, head of construction and agriculture sales at MTU, said: “MTU leads the pack when it comes to drive systems for large mobile cranes. As well as Terex Cranes, numerous other big-name construction equipment manufacturers such MTU’s 6R 1000/OM 936 engine will be used as Tadano and Manitowoc also source many in the Demag AC 45 City. hundreds of Series 1000 to 1500 engines per year from us.”

The 6R 1500/OM 473 engine for the Demag AC 300-6 all-terrain crane produces 430 kW and has exhaust gas after treatment systems, including selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), to ensure they meet the requirements of the current EPA Tier 4 final emissions directive.

The 6R 1000/OM 936 is a six-cylinder engine which provides the Demag AC 45 City with up to 260 kW of power.

According to Rolls-Royce, the MTU Series 1000 to 1500 engines have been developed specially for industrial applications in the agriculture and construction sectors and are based on Daimler commercial vehicle engines.

LINDEN COMANSA HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANT WORK The CCC Ituango Consortium, which comprises Brazilian conglomerate Carmago Correa and Colombian construction firms Constructora Conconcreto and Coninsa Ramon H, are using three tower cranes from Spanish manufacturer Linden Comansa to help build the Ituango hydroelectric power plant in Colombia. Once completed the power plant will be the largest in the Colombia and it is currently the largest infrastructure project under way in the country.

At the time of writing in early January, there were three Linden Comansa tower cranes installed on site. Two of them, a 21LC450 and a 16LC185, were being used to build a spillway. Both cranes were set up to reach a height of 60m and were assembled on a folding cross base with a travelling system. This means they can be moved on tracks installed on the ground, enabling them to cover more of the construction site faster than being dismantled and reassembled each time they are moved. The 21LC450 has a capacity of 20t and a height under hook of 54.6m, while the 16LC185 can handle a load of up to 8t and has a height under hook of 59.5m.

The third tower crane on site is an 11LC160, which lifts 8t. It was initially used to help build a tunnel, which will provide road access to the spillway.

The 11LC160 was then moved to help build two intake tunnels, which will take water from the reservoir to the turbines. At both locations, the 11LC160 was set up with a 40m under hook height. Like the other two cranes, it was installed on a folding base with travelling system enabling it to be moved quickly and lift different loads over a larger area than a stationary crane would be able to.

According to Linden Comansa, the modular structure of its cranes, comprising light and easy to handle parts, made transport to and assembly at the site relatively easy given the remote nature of the power plant, which is located in mountainous terrain. The cranes were sold to the CCC Ituango Consortium by Gigacon – Linden Comansa’s official distributor in Colombia. Gigacon also carried out the initially assembly of the cranes at the construction site.

OBITUARY: BENNY SARENS Benny Sarens died unexpectedly on December 30, 2017 at the age of 65.

Benny Sarens Benny Sarens, 1952-2017. started working at Sarens, now a leading international specialist in heavy lifting and engineered transport, in 1972. In the intervening years, he built up the technical solutions department of the Belgium-based familyowned business. Benny was instrumental in developing a world class technical team of experienced problem solvers, capable of designing and executing the most challenging engineered lifting projects. His lifetime achievement, in addition to the design of alternative lifting systems, was his leading involvement in pushing the development of the family of Sarens cranes known as “Big Benny” (the SGC 120) and Big Benny XL which is the recently-launched SGC 140.

As a pioneer in the crane and heavy lifting world, Benny Sarens leaves behind a visionary engineering legacy and knowledge from which engineers globally have drawn for years and are likely to continue to do so. Notable recent projects where he was involved include: Koniambo in New Caledonia; Vale in Brazil; Champlain in Canada; and TCO in Kazakhstan.

He is survived by his spouse and their six grown children. Three of the children work in the family business: Carl Sarens is director of technical solutions, projects and engineering; Steven Sarens, technical solutions manager; and Matthias Sarens, who is a project engineer.

Benny Sarens was also grandfather to 18 grandchildren.

CL

February/March 2018

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HIGH ON CRANES Active Crane Hire’s first MCR 125 is currently in Kiama, 100km south of Sydney.

A perfect marriage In January, Manitowoc launched its first hydraulic luffing jib crane, the Potain MCH125 and for Active Crane Hire, the new machine was a perfect fit to its fleet, writes Jacqueline Ong.

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ctive Crane Hire began operations in 2001, starting off with 10 self-erecting cranes and later purchasing a small hammerhead city crane. In 2011, the company embarked on a massive expansion, in large part due to the growth of Australia’s residential development market, doubling its fleet over the last five years. Today, the company has some 160 cranes in Sydney, the biggest of which is the MCT205 hammerhead crane. It may have a rather large fleet but the one thing it didn’t have was a luffing crane.

Enter Manitowoc.

The MCR125 combines the advantages of Potain’s MCR luffing jib cranes and MCT topless cranes, and according to Manitowoc, is the ideal machine for congested sites largely found in urban areas.

Maximum capacity for the MCH 125 is 8t, while the maximum jib length is 50m.

Tip capacity is 2t and maximum line speed is 100m/min when fitted with the 60 LVF 20 hoist. The crane’s design offers a number of advantages, including fast erection and dismantling. The topless design means less space is needed on site, as there is no cathead to assemble at ground level before installation.

It also uses Potain’s VVH hydraulic luffing technology for vertical movement of the jib, which eliminates the need for luffing wire ropes.

With VVH technology, the MCH125 is able to 12

raise from a horizontal level to 87˚ in less than two minutes.

As the hydraulics are pre-connected at the factory, the need to perform this duty during the crane’s on-site assembly is avoided. The hydraulic luffing design also means the crane has a shorter counter-jib and out-of-service radius when compared with rope-luffing alternatives, freeing up valuable space on congested job sites.

Active Crane Hire director Hermann Buchberger told Cranes and Lifting the company has had a long-standing partnership with Manitowoc, dating back to when the company first started in 2001 and today, 90% of its fleet are Potains.

When Buchberger first laid eyes on the MCH125, he got “excited” and knew that the machine would be compatible with its other cranes.

“In Australia, airspace is becoming a bigger topic of discussion and people do not like cranes to oversail their property. With luffing cranes, you can control the airspace much better, which is why we started looking at them.

But majority of the luffing cranes in the market are always too big,” Buchberger said.

“The MCH125 sits within the smaller luffing crane range and we can use it where air space is a problem, or in new developments that are popping up at the moment near infrastructure

ActIve Crane Hire’s Hermann Buchberger has plans to grow the company’s luffing crane fleet.

such as rail corridors where the authority doesn’t allow cranes to oversail - it’s the perfect application for luffing cranes. This crane also sits very nicely in our structure and it was quite an easy choice to commit to the product.”

Active Crane Hire has deployed its MCH125 to a residential development site in Kiama, 100km south of Sydney, where it will remain till mid this year.

“We had to use this type of crane because it’s next to the railway corridor and it made perfect sense to introduce the luffing crane there,” Buchberger said.

And the company has plans to grow its luffing crane fleet.

“We’re doing a bit of strategic work at the moment, introducing numbers all across the board. But I want to build our luffing crane fleet. We currently have three on order that will arrive this year and I think before the end of the calendar year, we will commit to another three. I want to build up this fleet to 10 units in the next 12 to 14 months,” he said.

CL February/March 2018

CICA INDUSTRY REPORT

From the president For most of us in the construction industry, 2017 was an inflection point with an improving market.

For sure we still have a long way to go to reach those historical highs of 2011/12, but it is great to finally be heading in the right direction.

T

hat was the hope, although at the time of writing we have just seen the Dow Jones industrials drop more than 1500 points hitting a new intraday “point drop” record, with other markets having shown similar downward trends. Economists have advised this was not caused by anything “fundamental”. Prior to this distraction, the Australian Industry Group (AIG) Construction Outlook was forecasting further positive growth rising to 7.1% through 2018 and remaining stable for 2019.

Despite a further fall in mining-related engineering construction, an expanding pipeline of publicly-funded infrastructure is expected to drive stronger activity over the coming years.

This positive outlook is being largely influenced by engineering construction with strong growth in road, rail, telecommunications and other civil projects. On the flipside, residential apartments are expected to slow as we see an oversupply and major projects coming to completion.

Road Access continues to be the number one area of frustration for the majority of our members located in the eastern states.

Queensland gained some good success last year by funding a trial liaison officer working with the NHVR and educating local councils with our industry to gain acceptance of the SPV1 notice.

This proactive and consultative approach was recognised by the NHVR and CICA was awarded a federal grant to fund a full-time position to drive improvement in this area. Hence, I am pleased to welcome Damien Hense to CICA as crane industry communication officer.

Damien has previously worked for 13 years at the Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) on programs relating to road access and road assessment for heavy vehicles. ARRB is a not-for-profit government association whose members are state local government associations (LGA NSW, LGAQ, MAV), state road authorities (RMS, TMR, VicRoads, Main Roads WA, DPTI), federal government (Transport and Infrastructure), and NHVR. CICA is already equipped with a strong technical foundation to support our position for increased road access.

We have produced position papers justifying the logic behind giving all-terrain cranes similar dynamic factors (due to their hydrodynamic suspension) and load certainty (they have a fixed tare mass) as platform trailers (See table 1 below). Damien is not “another engineer” but 14

Source: AI Group Construction Outlook, October 2017

February/March 2018

Table 1

rather, has a business background and will use this in conjunction with our technical papers to leverage and lobby for change.

Whilst on the topic of road access, South Australia has been the first state to return delegated authority to the NHVR to manage road compliance and permits. This transition has occurred with little impact to the operations for members. CICA continues to work with South Australian road managers on selfregistration and improved access using the revised Bridge Standard.

In NSW, we achieved a win over the holiday period with the removal of the requirement for a Christmas curfew and over in Victoria, the Victorian gazette is grandfathering cranes that are in the state for the next decade and work is underway to reduce the number of required escorts on dual carriageways. An amendment to the SPV1 notice is underway to include a better definition of three-axle crane rear overhang to allow for secondary winches and the inclusion of city cranes that have a single cabin. In Queensland, whilst the TMR has stated they have reduced their design load factor from 1.8 to 1.6 (favourable), they have advised it is unlikely this will increase allowable axle loads, but suggested it could open up access for previously not cross structures.

They also advised our industry has achieved impeccable IAP compliance rates over the past 12 months ranging between 99.3 to 99.9%.

Given this excellent result we are hopeful we will soon see the green light for some pending approvals to bring us in line with our southern brothers - namely tunnel access, self-weighing for registration and removal of the Christmas curfew. Of course, there is nothing to report for WA and NT for they already have near perfect road access, the model that all eastern states aspire towards.

Under the Heavy Vehicle National Chain of Responsibility(CoR) law, each party in the supply chain is obliged to ensure breaches of road transport laws do not occur. This applies to companies, employers, loading supervisors, operators/drivers and schedulers. The Chain of Responsibility encompasses speed, mass, February/March 2018

dimensions, fatigue, load restraint and in 2018, vehicle standards and maintenance will also be added. Each party in the supply chain must be able to demonstrate that they took all reasonably practicable steps to prevent any breaches. Industry is writing Codes of Practice to help define a management system to prevent breaches while CICA is taking a proactive approach by writing our own Crane CoR Code of Practice. Once again, our proactive collaborative approach has been recognised and CICA has been successful in being one of only three industry associations approved to write Industry Codes of Practice. Thank you to the volunteers helping us with this significant project - Launa Williams, Ben Pieyre, Danny Adair, Geoff Bevan, and John Gillespie. It is hopeful a draft code will be available for review at our February National Reference Group meeting in Adelaide.

For those who have not yet had the opportunity to view CICA’s CrewSafe (www.crewsafe.com.au) program, a reminder that it’s now live on the web. CrewSafe is a standardised assessment program that could eventually become the resumé for a crane operator - a game changer to combat the quality and cost of VOCs and an excellent example of CICA taking authority of the crane industry, proactively leading us to a Safe and Profitable Crane Industry for our members.

As we enter into 2018, it is great to finally see the construction industry some showing real signs of improvement and as an association, I am confident we have the right projects, expertise and resources to ensure we further our vision for a Safe and Profitable Industry in the year ahead. Of course, as CICA is YOUR association, our improvement initiatives should be to help you and our industry. If there are other areas you would like CICA to be working on, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line, I’d love to hear how we can better help.

Many Thanks, Danny Black CICA President General Manager Terex Australia 0419 384 962

CICA president Danny Black

CICA Board Danny Black – President, Terex Cranes Tom Smith – Vice President, Williamstown Crane Hire Andrew Esquilant, Liebherr Australia John Gillespie, Gillespies Crane Services Bart Sutherland, Complete Crane Hire Geoff Bevan, Hydralift Cranes Ben Pieyre, Freo Group

CICA Office Brandon Hitch, Chief Executive Officer 03 8320 0444 Tracey Watson, Business Operations Manager (VIC/TAS Secretariat) 03 8320 0411 Simone Hill, CICA Administration Officer (Accounts/Membership/Events) 03 8320 0420 Heidi Biuwale, CICA Administration Officer (NSW, QLD & NT Secretariat) 1300 887 277 Alice Edwards, Project Engineer 03 8320 440 Patrick Cran, Plant & Operator Assessment Officer 0488 004 274 Damien Hense, Industry Communications Officer 03 8320 0455 Unit 10, 18-22 Lexia Place, Mulgrave Vic 3170 (PO Box 136 Mount Waverley Vic 3149) Phone: 03 9501 0078 Fax: 03 9501 0083 Email: admin@cica.com.au Website: www.cica.com.au For information regarding CICA membership, please visit our website or call the CICA office.

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Membership Benefits

Enjoy the benefits of CICA membership…….

Lobbying & Representation:

 Representation on a National level  Links with like associations

 Industry representation on

Networking & Information:

 CICA State Branch meetings  Information about important

 Member discount to attend the

Industry Exposure &

 Promotional opportunities available

 Industry promotion and exposure

Products & Services:

 CICA’s Australian Standards Online

 CICA Traineeship  Discounts on CraneSafe program

Awards & Competitions:

Standards and EN13000.

Annual CICA Conference

industry issues

at industry events including the CICA Conference.

Access  CICAAssist  CICA Benchmarking Study

and the range of products

 Access to ongoing development of

new safety initiatives and products.

 Access to and celebration of the Con  CICA Lift of the Year Awards Popov Memorial Award for  Participation in the annual Photo of outstanding service to the national crane industry.

the Year Competition.

THE CRANE INDUSTRY COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA

PO Box 136, Mount Waverley Vic 3149 Phone: 03 9501 0078 Fax: 03 9501 0083 E-mail: admin@cica.com.au Website: www.cica.com.au

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Lifting Industry Standards

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February/March 2018

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The new and improved In response to industry feedback received following the publication of the inaugural Cranes and Lifting Top 50 crane owning companies in Australia and New Zealand in the November/December 2017 issue, the team has updated the list. Here’s the most up-to-date list of the top 100 crane owning companies in ANZ.

No.

Company

Head office

No. of wheeled mobile cranes

No. of crawler cranes

Total maximum load capacity of wheeled mobile and crawler cranes (tonnes)

No.

Company

1

ALE Heavylift (Australia)

QLD

84

30

39960

26

Sharp Carriers & Cranes Pty Ltd

2

Freo Group

WA

228

30

26150

27

3

Boom Logistics

VIC

282

11

21145

Gillespie Crane Services

4

Tutt Bryant Equipment Heavy Lift & Shift

QLD

70

62

20122

28

Pollock & Sons Crane Hire Ltd

5

Lampson Cranes

NSW

10

28

13108

29

6

Universal Cranes

QLD

121

33

11978

WGC Crane Group Pty Ltd

7

Sarens Australia Pty Ltd

QLD

34

14

9597

30

8

Mammoet Australia

WA

51

14

9540

9

LCR Group Pty Ltd

QLD

95

8

9108

10

Daniel Smith Industries Ltd

NZ

14

34

9029

11

Borger Crane Hire

NSW

65

5

7443

12

Crane Services Pty ltd

SA

47

1

7116.75

13

Smith Crane & Construction Ltd

NZ

48

16

5808

14

Leyburn Nominees Pty Ltd t/a Joyce krane

WA

50

15

John Holland

QLD

25

18

4719

16

Lee Crane Hire Pty Ltd

QLD

64

11

4463

17

Titan Cranes Limited (NZ)

NZ

54

3

4439

18

Melrose Cranes & Rigging Pty Ltd

NSW

44

8

4296

19

Andrade Holdings t/a Bentley Crane Hire

WA

50

1

3746

20

McKay United t/a Williamstown Crane Hire

VIC

45

5

3602.6

21

Waikato / Auckland Crane Services Ltd

NZ

42

2

3253

22

Max Cranes

SA

37

23

Metcalf Crane Services Pty Ltd

VIC

23

24

Hi Lift Cranes Ltd

NZ

15

1

2749

25

Capel Cranes

WA

22

0

2655

February/March 2018

Head office

No. of wheeled mobile cranes

No. of crawler cranes

Total maximum load capacity of wheeled mobile and crawler cranes (tonnes)

SA

50

NSW

24

1

2285

NZ

19

3

2271

NSW

23

6

2270

Fleurieu Cranes

SA

24

2171

31

Interstate Crane & Transport Hire Pty Ltd

WA

17

2117

32

New Zealand Crane Hire

NZ

18

2048

33

Alfasi Equipment Hire

VIC

13

10

1782

34

Sergi Australia Pty Ltd

VIC

13

2

1762.5

35

Preston Hire

NSW

8

89

1644.48

36

Action Cranes

NSW

25

0

1581

37

AM Cranes & Rigging

NT

21

1

1482

38

Metrolift Cranes

QLD

16

1

1470

39

Ian Roebuck Crane hire Ltd

NZ

16

2

1418

40

Kwik Pty Ltd

WA

27

41

Everwilling Cranes Pty Ltd

NSW

12

42

Titan Heavy Lift Pty Ltd

WA

13

1405

43

McLeod Cranes Ltd

NZ

29

1392

44

G&T Construction

NZ

3

4

1357

45

Walz Group Pty Ltd

QLD

7

5

1276

46

Fulton Hogan

NZ

5

15

1255

3129

47

Central Crane Services

NSW

19

1

1197

3014

48

Boddington Crane Hire

WA

22

1

1187

49

Culham Engineering Co Ltd

NZ

12

50

McIntosh Cranes

NZ

13

5100

2380

1412 2

1410

1171 1

1169 17

TOP 50

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Head office

No. of wheeled mobile cranes

No. of crawler cranes

Total maximum load capacity of wheeled mobile and crawler cranes (tonnes)

NZ

14

14

668

1

658

Company

51

Australian Machinery Hire

QLD

25

4

1166

76

Fletcher Construction Company Ltd

52

GBP Cranes

NSW

16

1

1145

77

NSW

5

53

Independent Crane Hire Pty Ltd

VIC

21

Debner Cranes Pty Ltd

78

Action Cranes

NSW

10

656

54

NQ Group Heavy Haulage & Cranes

QLD

8

79

Hydralift Cranes

VIC

11

649

55

Martin Cicerale Group (MCG Cranes) Pty Ltd

VIC

14

80

Mann's Logan Crane Hire

QLD

13

648

56

Wheeler Cranes & Services Pty Ltd

NSW

17

81

Two Way Cranes

NSW

11

1

629

82

Crossy's Crane Hire

QLD

12

1

615

83

Mid Coast Cranes Pty Ltd

NSW

13

84

Premier Cranes & Rigging

VIC

9

85

Townsville Cranes

QLD

14

86

Membreys Transport & Crane Hire

VIC

8

87

Big Lift Cranes & Heavy Haulage

NSW

8

578

88

Sunraysia Crane & Rigging

VIC

9

577

89

Collie Crane Hire

WA

9

555

90

Ham's Crane Hire

QLD

8

547

91

Diack Bros Ltd

NZ

12

540

92

Wagga Mobile Cranes

NSW

10

538

93

Botany Cranes

NSW

12

1

538

94

HEB Structure Ltd

NZ

7

16

537

95

Quicklift Crane Hire

VIC

17

2

517

96

Smithy's Cranes Pty Ltd

QLD

5

510

97

Jacksons Cranes & Heavy Haulage Ltd

NZ

8

498

765

98

Riverina Crane Services Pty Ltd

NSW

9

760

99

Henry Plants and Equipment

NSW

7

485

VIC

9

482

1125 1065 3

1063.3 1050

57

Cosa Group

NT

17

1010

58

Century Cranes

QLD

19

961

59

Lindores Construction Logistics

QLD

11

60

Hago Crane

WA

8

940

61

Sydney Cranes

NSW

11

926

62

RAR Cranes Pty Ltd

ACT

11

63

DJ Adair Crane Services

NSW

14

64

Project Dry Hire Pty Ltd

NSW

5

65

P&D Rigging and Crane Hire

VIC

14

66

Advanced Cranes & Rigging

VIC

14

885

67

Project Hire Pty Ltd

VIC

11

885

68

WB Global

WA

16

849

69

Halifax Crane Hire

WA

30

70

Pfeiffer Cranes Pty Ltd

TAS

12

Surf City Cranes Pty Ltd

QLD

72

Barkly Crane Hire

QLD

13

73

M&B Rigging & Crane Hire Pty Ltd

QLD

11

74

Quinlan Cranes

VIC

16

75

Skylift Crane Services Pty Ltd

VIC

11

18

Company

No. of crawler cranes

Head office

No.

71

No.

No. of wheeled mobile cranes

Total maximum load capacity of wheeled mobile and crawler cranes (tonnes)

2

2

946.81

925 908

2 2

1

895 885.8

823 820

14

810 785 1

3

719.5

100 Keppel Prince Cranes

600 1

599 593

3

1

February/March 2018

588.8

495

Impartial. Machine Specific. Peer Assessment.

ÂŽ

TOP 50 PROFILE

ALE: local presence, worldwide footprint With 30 branches worldwide and three dedicated branch locations in Australia, ALE is a global leader in heavy transportation and lifting; delivering a highly tailored service and providing innovative equipment and engineering solutions. Greg Keane finds out more.

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February/March 2018

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A

LE works across a range of sectors, including civil, oil and gas, petrochemical, power generation, nuclear, renewables and offshore.

As a full solutions provider, ALE is a onestop-shop offering strategic and integrated services covering every aspect of the handling, transportation and installation of heavy, indivisible loads; including lifting, transporting, installing, ballasting, jacking and weighing.

ALE houses an extensive equipment fleet.

For the Australia-specific market, ALE has onand off-road transportation, specialist cranes and innovative lifting solutions for the oil and gas, mining, civil and power generation industries.

Furthermore, ALE can draw upon a wider range of resources from its global network.

More notably, the award-winning Innovation Series is the label given to some of the most advanced and cutting-edge technologies that have revolutionised the heavy lifting sector. Innovations include the

AL.SK cranes - the world’s largest capacity land-based cranes, the Mega Jack and Mega Jack 800 jacking systems, and the Hydro Deck - the unique mobile port solution that was used for the first time in Darwin for the Ichthys Onshore LNG Facilities Complex Project to load out 149 modules. By pushing the boundaries with its innovations, ALE can solve client challenges and ultimately drive project efficiency by saving clients time and money.

CL

Case study: installation of girder bridge structure, Toowoomba Second Range Crossing ALE has successfully installed the first of 24 bridge structures as part of the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing (TSRC) project in Queensland, where it is a subcontractor to Nexus Delivery.

The bridge girders, weighing up to 90t each, were transported to their installation position using hydraulic trailers with bolsters. Once in position, installation was carried out using a Liebherr LR1280 crawler crane.

This girder (right) is part of one of the bridge structures for the 41km-long toll road, which will provide an alternative crossing of the Toowoomba Range for all classes of heavy vehicles to improve freight efficiency and driver safety, relieve pressure on Toowoomba and Lockyer Valley roads, and enhance liveability for the city’s residents.

Case study: jacking, transportation and load-out of two autoclaves, New Caledonia - Port Pirie ALE has successfully performed the jacking and transportation of two autoclaves, weighing 605t each.

ALE first loaded the autoclaves onto the SPMTs at the New Caledonia storage site, using the SPMTs’ hydraulics to jack them up ready for onward transportation.

The autoclaves were then transported from New Caledonia to the Port of Prony jetty using 72 axle lines of SPMT. The 3.8km route was particularly challenging as it involved travelling over 2km on a 10% gradient descent.

These autoclaves were then loaded out onto a heavy lift vessel, along with the SPMTs, and shipped to Port Pirie (SA).

Once they arrived at the port, ALE loaded in the autoclaves using the same SPMT configuration and transported them into storage.

It took approximately one month to complete.

February/March 2018

Autoclave on an SPMT at the Port of Prony jetty, prior to loading onto the heavy lift vessel.

21

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TOP 50

TOP 50 PROFILE finlease

TM

Making a mark in the wind market

Boom Logistics - supplier of integrated lifting solutions for Australian industry - has spent the last few years transforming its business to be more cost effective and flexible to meet customer demands, while also making significant inroads to becoming a major player in the country’s booming wind farm sector, writes Jan Arreza.

A

ccording to Boom Logistics’ chief operating officer Tony Spassopoulos, the company has been involved in wind farms for over 10 years.

“At first, we were involved in wind farm maintenance works, and then, we secured the installation contract for Suzlon Energy at the Oakland Hills wind farm, where it was a crane-only package,” Spassopoulos added.

“The next logical step with the Australian market was having the ability for combined electrical and mechanical completion work, delivering projects to our customers with a total package.

“After Oaklands, we went into the Bald Hills wind farm, where we delivered a total package offering of crane, mechanical and electrical installation for Senvion.”

Completed and fully operational from 2015, the Bald Hills wind farm in Victoria consists of 52 turbines, each with a rated power of 2.05MW, a hub height of 80m, and a rotor diameter of 92.5m.

Boom utilised its 750t crawler crane – originally introduced for use on wind farm projects – due to the advantage of offering higher capacity lifts at specialised industrial sites.

The company also made use of its other major assets and resources from within its business to install the major components of the turbines.

In early 2017, Boom Logistics was awarded a contract with Vestas to provide services for the construction and delivery of the Kiata wind farm in north western Victoria.

Boom Logistics once again mobilised its high capacity 750t crane to site in July of last year to install the Vestas 3.45MW turbines to a height of 117m, the highest operating turbines in Australia at the time. Boom’s experienced personnel completed the full cranage, mechanical and electrical installation of the turbines across a period of three months.

“Boom has always had the equipment base - the 750 crawler is a great machine; however February/March 2018

the 750 is only one part of it - there’s a lot more than one big crane on a wind farm site, there are often a multitude of assets and experienced crew all working together to get the job done, safely,” Spassopoulous said.

Boom Logistics has a fleet of 300 cranes up to 750t in capacity - 200 travel towers with reach up to 70m, as well as all the ancillary equipment required to deliver on these projects.

“We’ll have teams onsite offloading and laying the hardstands out with the components for installation, before we start installing the components.

“Our team will install them in several phases with several teams - one crew would take care of putting up the base towers, another one might come through to do the nacelle, while another comes in to do the blade install, etc.

“Then once it’s all up, we send in people to do the electrical configuration as well, so we’re offering a total package of work for the client throughout the entire run of the project.”

According to Spassopoulos, more often than not, there are two or three factors that might determine what crane to use on a job.

“The developer’s infrastructure and planning approvals for the project does impact crane selection, factors such as road access and pad size,” Spassopoulos said.

“The other factor that is now coming into play is that hub heights are getting higher, which means that potentially cranes that were once highly beneficial in relocation between hardstands, are no longer suitable because they don’t quite have the capacity at hook height.

“Boom’s larger capacity all-terrain cranes prove beneficial in base installation, offering fast relocation. Typically, we would run our 400t to 500t class all-terrain class cranes for base install and preassembly which can include installing the first two or three tower tubes.

Also, each main crane will have a secondary

crane paired with it in the 100t to 200t class, as well as several offloading machines.”

Although, with turbine size, and hub heights increasing, Boom’s fleet is growing this year with the addition of two 750t all-terrain cranes.

“The pair of LTM1750s will prove an invaluable asset in meeting our clients’ demands in construction, following through to maintenance support,” Spassopoulos said.

Currently, Boom Logistics is working on ACCIONA Energy’s $258 million Mt Gellibrand wind farm project, located in the Colac Otway Shire on Victoria’s Western Plains.

The first towers were installed in December last year, where Boom is using its 500t all-terrain to perform base tower installation, followed by a crawler crane installing the nacelle. The blades are then installed using the 500t crane configured with 47.3m boom and 63m luffing fly working with a team of skilled personnel with extensive expertise to complete the installation.

Through the course of the project, 44 steel towers in total will be installed at the site, positioning the wind turbine generator to a hub height of 87.5m. At their highest point the blades will reach almost 150m into the air.

Each blade weighs approximately 17.5t, while the four tower sections collectively tip the scales at 220t. Over the complete installation process, more than 18,000t of turbine infrastructure will be moved into place.

“We are well underway on ACCIONA’s Mt Gellibrand project in Victoria. It’s a good-size project for us and we’ve been there for several months now, and will continue through to June this year,” Spassopoulos said.

“It’s all about safety first and then getting the right line-up of personnel - having experienced site and safety managers, the right engineers, the right supervisors, the right riggers, the right crane crew, the right mechanical technicians and ensuring everyone works well together. C L 23

TOP 50 PROFILE

The virtuoso of the outback With a total maximum load capacity of mobile cranes of more than 3000t, Max Cranes is not only in the Cranes and Lifting Top 50 crane owning companies in Australia and New Zealand, it is in the top five in South Australia. And it is hard to imagine that the SA crane giant began with three cranes on a small dusty block on the Augusta Highway in Port Augusta, with an ATCO hut for an office, writes Jacqueline Ong.

M

ax Cranes was founded in 2002 by two businessmen - one a steel erector and the other a concrete/ builder - when they identified a gap in the market for crane, transport and access equipment hire services across regional SA. The duo picked out Port Augusta, where their head office remains, as the ideal location to base their new business due to its geographical position and the mining, oil and gas, and heavy industrial projects forecasted at the time.

Today, Max Cranes, headed up by managing director Mark Kuhn and director Graham Elliot, boasts a 100-strong team that operates across the state and country from the company’s state-of-the-art office building, large maintenance workshop, wash-down bays, crane storage sheds, fully equipped staff crib rooms, and associated facilities.

The early years Kuhn told Cranes and Lifting the main challenge in the early years was turning their idea into reality, which no doubt required funding, leading edge assets, and above all else, “good people.”

“The early challenges were in fact a result of the organisation getting traction quickly, cementing client relationships that pulled rapidly on these resources so the challenge was ultimately the rapid growth curve we were working to,” he said.

“The first milestone in an overarching sense was ‘scale’. With scale came agility, the ability to invest heavily in safety and having a skill set that was exceptionally diverse allowing us to undertake a wide variety of projects for our clients. The demand for cranes and the foresight of the startup owners were right - the need was there and the business grew with the need at the time. With a lot of hard work and entrepreneurship, support from the local community across multiple levels and good business judgement, the company grew year on year.”

Maintaining its track record Max Cranes was engaged to assist across a number of disciplines in the Nyrstar Port Pirie Redevelopment.

(More on page 26)

24

Working in regional SA is no mean feat Australia’s outback is known for its harsh terrain, which exacerbates wear and tear, and its extreme weather. Just thinking about temperatures soaring to 50°C one minute and changing the February/March 2018

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TOP 50

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next to conditions that could very well include torrential rains and severe winds, is enough to put many businesses off. Not Max Cranes.

“Being highly reactive to requirements 24/7 is a large part of why we are recognised as experts for working in these remote locations. We are operationally prepared, highly experienced and have the systems in place to ensure our staff and clients’ teams are safe at all times,” Kuhn said.

“We have state-of-the-art management systems including fleet and personnel tracking and monitoring for safety; 24/7 in-house on call technical and maintenance assistance; and very experienced personnel.”

Maintaining fleet quality is another factor that has driven Max Cranes’ success in SA and the team has its eye fixed on the future, continuing to invest in its fleet, technology, staff, infrastructure, and systems to ensure its longevity.

“We undertake a large amount of market research and due-diligence in order to understand the markets we operate in, future-proofing the business for prospective opportunities and also ensuring we have a differentiator, which is providing not only a diverse fleet for crane hire, but access equipment and heavy haulage transport to provide a holistic project solution where possible. This has been a consistent driver behind fleet transformation and growth,” Kuhn said.

February/March 2018

But perhaps it is Max Cranes’ unfaltering commitment to its customers that is most impressive, with Kuhn telling Cranes and Lifting that the company’s mantra is to be a partner to its clients and it will never take a shortcut to increase profit margins at the expense of safety and quality - often not an easy promise to make when you consider just how commercially competitive the market is. But Max Cranes is determined to honour its commitment, noting that management has authorised the team to say ‘no’ if they believe that quality and safety will be compromised.

The future Like its neighbours across Australia, SA has had to evolve over the last two years as the economic climate continues to change.

The state is at the forefront in a number of areas, including the circular economy and renewable energy, presenting opportunities for Max Cranes and others in the sector. In fact, the company pointed to the wind farm maintenance sector as one that is “especially transformative at the moment”, which led the team to acquire 400t and 500t cranes that are at the heart of the business today.

Max Cranes has been able to move with the times and take up opportunities as they

Max Cranes’ detailed lift studies led to a safe and efficient outcome on all crane lifts. More on page 26.

25

TOP 50 PROFILE

come because from the very onset, the directors have instilled a learning environment.

“We still haven’t stopped learning. The greatest lesson learnt in the early years was that for every opportunity, we must see our solution or proposition from the standpoint of the client. The company listens, we offer ideas and we solve problems while being focussed on the efficiencies and economies. This embedded approach is what still forms our company culture today,” Kuhn said.

Over the last two years, Max Cranes has also repositioned and refocussed its business and service offerings and said that as a business, its competitors are “low in our strategic thinking”.

“We pride ourselves on a number of differentiating points but ultimately it comes down to our company values,” Kuhn said.

“What sets us apart is our people - the business takes care of its people and in return we have specialised, dedicated staff that want the best for the business and its growth. The culture is that, the better the business is doing, the more it can give back to our community through earnings and additional non-specific employment, traineeships, apprenticeships, upskilling and associated mentoring. The fleet is of no use without the people behind it.”

Max Cranes also prides itself on “in-sourcing”, largely driven by its geographic location.

“Being predominantly regional, our fleet is based further from manufacturer support than sometimes practical, so we’ve invested heavily in ‘in-house’ maintenance and repair, employing full-time specialists that operate from our purpose-built workshop and remote location service vehicles,” Kuhn explained.

Looking ahead, the challenges Max Cranes faces is no different to its peers - getting the mix right for customers who expect optimisation, efficiencies and safety. But the company is unfazed, pointing to its efforts in researching and developing systems as well as safety processes, and marrying the right technologies.

“We embrace the challenge these critical components bring and the reward for getting them right is the bond it creates with our clients,” Kuhn said.

The company is also excited about the emerging renewables projects in SA, revitalised oil and gas sector, and infrastructure developments in metro SA - areas that the company will no doubt be a part of as they grow and develop.

Max Cranes also has news to share in the coming months, with Kuhn revealing: “We are traveling to Europe in March of this year to research our next acquisition, which will add a whole new dimension to the business, and although we don’t wish to give too much away just now, we are sure it will make for an exciting ‘next article’ so we will keep it up our sleeve till then...”

CL 26

Max Cranes is also an expert photographer.

This photo won the Photo of the Year award at last year’s CICA crane conference.

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: Nyrstar Port Pirie Redevelopment THE Port Pirie smelter on the eastern shore of the Upper Spencer Gulf in SA has been in operation for more than 127 years and in 2015, Nyrstar embarked on a half-abillion-dollar Redevelopment project, which involved the conversion of operations into an advanced metal recovery and refining facility. Key aspects of the Redevelopment project included the replacement of the existing sinter plant with an oxygen enriched bath smelting furnace as well as replacement of the existing sulfuric acid plant with one that has greater capacity and upgraded technology. In January, the $660 million metals processing plant was officially commemorated.

Max Cranes was engaged to assist across a number of disciplines, including the supply of heavy haulage for transportation of equipment from the berth ships to nominated laydown areas throughout the site. Max Cranes was also engaged to supply heavy and complicated lifting solutions on various aspects throughout the construction phase of the project.

As part of its work, the company developed many detailed lift studies and implemented and performed these to an exceptionally high standard. All of which led to a safe and efficient outcome on all crane lifts.

Prior to the Redevelopment project engaging the company, a Max Cranes heavy

lift manager scoped all works to ensure the correct crane was nominated to perform the required lift(s). As different work fronts ran parallel to each other on a 24/7 basis, it was crucial that the planning/machine choice was available within Max Cranes’ fleet.

“A variety of cranage capacity was required throughout the construction phase, including 500t, 400t, 250t, 220t, 180t, 130t, 100t, 60t and Franna Cranes, which were engaged in the Top Submerged Lance (TSL) and Acid Plant areas for the heavy lift requirements and also for their ability of reach,” Kuhn said.

“If efficiencies could be found across lifts - i.e. using a larger crane already on-site to undertake a smaller lift, whilst providing economic efficiencies - our heavy lift and operations team ensured that this was clearly communicated to the project team.”

Kuhn acknowledged that given the nature of the large-scale project, there were potential challenges at every turn.

“But with an open line of communication with the construction team, any issues that arose were resolved promptly,” Kuhn said.

“There were many achievements celebrated over the construction period which Max Cranes were proud to be a part of. One of the main areas Max Cranes was proud to be associated with was the safety effort by all.”

February/March 2018

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FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018

CAL CELEBRATES A decade of dedication

10TH ANNIVERSARY

A decade of change I am in the unusual position of having been in on the ground floor of Cranes and Lifting - first as a feature within Contractor magazine in 2004 and then when it grew legs and became a separately bound publication in 2007, writes Greg Keane.

I

left the magazine in 2012 and only returned mid-way through last year so, although I cover the bookends, I am unqualified to comment on much of that 10 years. As a result, I’ll cover the “then and now”.

Big changes THE first cover showed Potain tower cranes from D&G on the Perth skyline. At the time, D&G was a breath of fresh air in the tower crane industry, which experienced significant cost pressures from builders and as a result had a high average fleet age. In the isolation of the Perth market, operating a modern fleet seemed to be working for D&G. History shows that D&G went into receivership soon after expanding to the East Coast with the acquisition of Verticon. It’s a shame: the people behind D&G were real gentlemen and great hosts on their projects when I visited Perth.

The D&G story is similar to a number of others as far as names that have disappeared from the crane landscape since 2007.

D&G tower crane being erected, 2007.

In “At Your Service” in March 2007, profiles were done on a number of high profile crane companies. Structural Cranes was a force in the Newcastle market at the time but has since disappeared.

Mackay-based company Walter Wright also disappeared, taking with it National Crane Hire, which it bought towards the end.

Former manager Albert Ramsamy recalls the Walter Wright business that he was associated with for a long time as a profitable one with a good name and strong growth prior to its going public and absorbing other businesses. He has been out of the crane industry since that time but is active with indigenous business group Gulmari Group Services (he is of Torres Strait Islander descent) in providing civil and training opportunities in NSW and QLD. Herules Crane Hire was a WA company whose growth was reported on in 2007: sadly, its distinctive green cranes are just a memory.

In 2007, Freo Machinery was controlled locally by the Canci family. Now, as Freo Group, it is a much larger business and controlled

by Marmon Crane Services Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway Company.

This was one of a number of transactions that boosted the permanent presence of overseas companies in the Australian market, bringing new capabilities particularly at the top end.

Eagle Cranes and Rigging (later ECR Group) initially established a joint venture with ALE before being acquired by it.

Initially Universal Cranes and Sarens worked together to provide the market with larger crawler cranes (Universal already had an established market with smaller crawler cranes doing precast panel work).

Sarens ultimately established an independent presence and moved SPMTs to Australia after completing work on the Goro nickel project in New Caledonia.

LCR Lindores was reported on in 2007. With the withdrawal of the Lindores brothers from ownership, it became LCR Group. While tower cranes were a strength of the original company, the LCR Group withdrew from this market but strengthened its presence in other areas.

Gone… Walter Wright.

Sarens SPMT on New Caledonia.

Gone… Structural Cranes.

February/March 2018

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10TH ANNIVERSARY

New cranes IN Melbourne, we reported on Sergi taking delivery of a 350t Demag AC350 all-terrain crane. It had no time for a paint job before it went to work lifting 72t bridge beams on the Pakenham Bypass. These days a 450t Grove GMK7450 is king of the Sergi fleet but the AC350 is still a crane very much in demand.

It was also reported that John Holland had purchased the AC350’s big brother, the 500t AC500, for work on the EastLink project in Melbourne. It was sold on completion of the project.

Also on the Demag front, we reported on Smiley Williams of Williams Cranes & Rigging buying the first Demag AC55-1 and AC100/4 cranes in Australia. Their modest support vehicle requirements were a factor in the purchases.

We reported on Melrose Cranes & Rigging buying the first Grove GMK7450 in Australia.

Its roadability and capacity made it a popular crane not only in its home Sydney market but in country NSW and interstate, at a time when there was a shortage of roadable cranes of this size on the East Coast. Some

The LinCon fleet of 2007.

90t Mantis crane before it took on the Tadano brand.

This wasn’t the end of the Lindores name in the crane industry. Colleen Lindores started LinCon, which purchased Mini Cranes Queensland from Chris Austin (also reported in March 2007) and became a specialist in access equipment, including bridge inspection units and towers for use in high voltage cross country powerlines.

This has gone from strength to strength, with Colleen’s daughter Chantelle now running the mini crane business. This recently changed names to Lindores Mobile Cranes, following the recent addition of larger cranes to the fleet.

The next generation of the Lindores family also has a presence in tower cranes, with Chris Lindores starting Lindores Construction Logistics in 2009.

Boom Logistics had largely completed its acquisition trail by 2007 and MD Rod Harmon stepped aside mid-year to pursue other interests.

On the crane front, we reported on Radius Cranes being appointed the Mantis crawler crane distributor for Australasia and PNG. These days Mantis bears the Tadano brand, and is distributed accordingly.

Activity in pick and carry land THE demise of Linmac essentially left the pick and carry crane market to Franna. DRA Division Construct Engineering continues to develop and build the Humma, as our cover story shows, but it is not targeting volume production at this stage.

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Its flagship models generally lead the market in capacity.

There were attempts, reported in 2007, to have local designs built in China to compete at the volume end of the pick and carry market.

Australian Crane & Machinery (ACM) showed the prototype of its Panda design at the Adelaide crane conference. This was reworked in response to feedback, but the efforts to have XCMG build the Panda in China ultimately failed, and ACM has also withdrawn from distribution of XCMG-designed cranes.

It has, however, become a manufacturer in its own right. Initially its elevating work platforms were built in Korea but the opening of a factory in Melbourne this year will see all ACM manufacture undertaken locally, including a truck crane designed for fitting to a commercial truck chassis. This was announced at the 2017 Adelaide crane conference but is expected to be seen in the flesh later this year. ACM has also developed a specialisation in sophisticated road/rail inspection vehicles.

It was a similar story with the first Zoomlion crane distributor, Dellgale. It obtained the Linmac drawings and looked to have these modernised and made in China. Ultimately this effort failed, as did Dellgale itself.

More recently, the NZ-made TIDD pick and carry crane has made its presence felt in the Australian market, which is considerably smaller now than it was at its peak.

Mark Figel soon after arriving in Australia.

Anthony Davis (right) with Brian Taylor of Valley Cranes in front of the rebuilt 300t Grove.

February/March 2018

Casa’s Liebherr LT1100 telescopic boom crawler crane.

of the travel routes were circuitous because of the limited number of bridges of suitable capacity.

Sadly, we later reported on a fire that put the crane off the road for an extended period. This, and the purchase by others of large cranes, largely put an end to the jobs involving extended travel. The business recovered and has gone from strength to strength, moving into new premises this year to put an end to working from three depots. Gregg Melrose celebrates 20 years as a crane owner this year, the last 18 with the current business. It’s a great success story for someone who once had a share in a single truck crane.

For a large crane, the GMK7450 has proven quite popular on the East Coast, with Boom Logistics, Universal Cranes and General Cranes all having examples, and there are also cranes in WA and NZ. In our overview of hire companies in 2007, Tutt Bryant Crane Hire had just purchased a 650t Hitachi Sumitomo crawler crane as its flagship: that has been blown away by the current flagship, a 1600t Demag CC8800-1.

On the Liebherr front, we reported on

Casa Engineering being one of the first purchasers of the 100t LTR 1100 telescopic boom crawler cranes. Acceptance was such that it soon had three of this model in its fleet.

In 2007, ACM reported on the sale of the first 550t Kobelco SL6000 lattice boom crawler crane, for work at a Port Hedland project. At the most recent crane conference, ACM displayed Kobelco telescopic boom crawler cranes: a new product area for Kobelco but one in which local sales have already been made.

550t Kobelco SL6000.

Plain clothes Sergi AC350 on the Pakenham Bypass job.

Sign written Melrose Grove GMK7450 prior to leaving the US.

People IN March 2007, we ran a profile on Jeff Brundell, a year retired from being MD of the Manitowoc Crane Group but still very active in CICA in nurturing and fine-tuning his “baby”, the CraneSafe program. He went on to write a regular column that filled the back page of the magazine - filled with a mix of insights into the crane industry (some fairly close to the bone) and the fishing prospects in Howlong, his retirement home on the river.

There was quite a bit of change with Liebherr distribution in 2007. Long-term distributor GM Baden was replaced by direct factory distribution for the Ehingen-manufactured cranes. We met newly appointed mobile crane GM Mark Figel soon after he arrived from Germany; and attended the opening of a new facility at Smithfield.

This facility has been replaced by a new national head office in western Sydney that unites the different Liebherr divisions.

Mark has since returned to Europe, along with his Australian-born children, and heads the concrete division.

Gerhard Baden sold his crane repair and maintenance business to Boom Logistics, but started a new business (Baden Cranes) to sell the construction cranes from Liebherr’s Nenzing factory. Rob McInnes, who was business

February/March 2018

development manager at GM Baden, moved into the new construction crane sales business.

This was short-lived, with distribution of the Nenzing cranes moving to the company-owed business. However, Gerhard’s son Ben started Ben Baden Services to provide repair and maintenance services and joined with well-known sales identity (and brother-in-law) Anthony Davis to form The Baden Davis Crane Connection. This business distributes Link-Belt cranes nationally; and has the NSW franchise for TIDD pick and carry cranes. An indication of their combined capabilities is the recent sale to Hunter Valley company Valley Cranes of a new TIDD crane and a used 300t Grove all-terrain crane that has been stripped and rebuilt. Valley Cranes is currently servicing three mines, and the purchases allow it to cost-effectively service business when all mines are busy. The 300t crane allows heavy lifts to be done with a single crane where previously these were dual crane lifts.

We had a profile on Bob Davis in 2007, shortly after he had sold his remaining shares in BG Crane to Hiab. Unable to stay away from the industry, he was seen at the Maxilift stand at the most recent Adelaide CICA conference.

In September 2007, we reported the death of Max Whiley, founder of Titan Cranes in NZ

Our youngest crane lover.

and a titan of the industry himself - something recognised by life membership of the NZ Contractors Federation.

In this issue, we balanced the Max Whiley story with one on perhaps the youngest subject of a story in the magazine’s history. Nick Eleftheriadis owns Nick’s Crane Services in Adelaide, and in 2007 none of his children were interested in the industry. However, grandson Georgie (then aged five) loved cranes and even took his kindergarten group on a tour of Nick’s business. A proud Nick named one of his Frannas “Little Georgie’s Pride.”

Nick reports that these days, Georgie’s love of girls competes with his love of cranes.

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10TH ANNIVERSARY

Industry 2007 was the first time that the Adelaide crane conference was hosted in the Adelaide Convention Centre, with the outdoor display at the Torrens Parade Ground. The conference had outgrown the much-loved previous venue at Glenelg. At this conference, there was also a mini outdoor display at the convention centre - a space that has disappeared with its further development.

In 2007, CICA’s Guide to 10 Year Major Inspections was news, and promoted as improving consistency in major inspections, in the same way that guidelines for annual inspections promoted consistency in this area.

At the 2017 crane conference, CICA had altered its approach to take into account machine hours, while still requiring a high standard of record keeping. This approach is one that was long advocated by Phil Lunn of Lampson Australia, who argued that large cranes in Australia generally worked significantly fewer hours per year than similar cranes in other parts of the world.

Phil initiated remanufacture of Manitowoc 4100 crawler cranes in the Lampson’s Newcastle facility, with many modern features introduced during the rebuild. Sadly, Phil is no longer with us – he was the type of person of which there will only ever be one.

2007 mini outdoor display at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

Phil Lunn at the controls of a remanufactured Manitowoc 4100.

On the job FOR me, the year started on a job in Wagga Wagga where Arenco was replacing the 1881 wrought iron rail bridge over the Murrumbidgee River at Wagga Wagga over a four-day New Year shutdown. Arenco was the principal contractor and Wheelers Cranes was responsible for cranage.

The project was a masterpiece in planning.

The piers for the new bridge were installed outside the line of the existing bridge, and headstocks were cast, while the existing bridge was in operation. A 600t Demag crawler crane and 550t Liebherr lattice boom truck crane operated from opposite banks of the river to pull down sections of the existing bridge that were cut with thermal lances. Each removed section had a pre-ordained placement area that did not require double handling. Close to the embankments, full spans were lifted with the centre spans being cut into smaller elements to match the lift chart of the cranes. The tight program was complicated by two dust storms during the night that closed down the site.

Once the old bridge was down, erection of the remaining precast elements of the new bridge commenced, with a 300t Liebherr all-terrain crane introduced to speed work.

Once the bridge was up, a John Holland crew installed the rails over the new bridge, and the deadline was met.

The planning included redundancy of almost every element except the cranes (this was impractical) but there were contingency plans in the event of a breakdown. To my simple mind, it was the best example of planning and implementation that I have experienced on site, and I am grateful to Fred Wheeler for giving me the opportunity to experience it, and to sit in on the toolbox meetings.

The other favourite site visit was to Adelaide for the erection of the opening sections of the new bascule bridge at Port Adelaide. Sadly, my flights were booked based on the planned erection times but a reschedule meant that I had to fly out before it took place. I did, however, see National Crane Hire’s Demag CC2800 set up on the barge, and saw the first opening section delivered to shore from Samaras’ fabrication facility. I was also able to visit Samaras’ facility, which was supplying large fabricated structures to many parts of Australia. Samaras has its own cranes, which did external hire as well as working to load structures at the factory.

National spent $1.5 million on modifying the barge to suit the job, including cradles for the Superlift counterweight. A cradle was also built on the deck to secure the bridge beam crossways for transport to the lift site with the crane. With the sail area of the beam, monitoring the wind was an important safety consideration. Tirfor winches were used to prevent the beam from rotating, and a tug worked in conjunction with the barge winches to position the barge at an angle that facilitated CL the lift.

Aerial view of National Crane’s 600t Demag on a barge lifting the opening section of the new Port Adelaide bascule bridge.

Round the clock work at the Wagga Wagga rail bridge replacement over the 2006/07 New Year shutdown of the national rail line.

Steelwork for the bridge at the Samaras fabrication facility.

CL

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February/March 2018

10TH ANNIVERSARY

A decade of support And just like that, Cranes and Lifting is marking a decade, okay, 11 years, of production. We wouldn’t be where we are today if we didn’t have the support of the sector and it is our goal to continue to contribute to the success of our readers, advertisers, and suppliers well into the next decade.

In looking back on the last 10 years, a number of early supporters, who continue to back our efforts, come to mind. Our 10th anniversary spread wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t take the time acknowledge them. Patrick Lau speaks to some of them to get their thoughts on the decade that has gone by and what they hope to see in Cranes and Lifting (CAL) moving forward.

John Stewart, vice president and general manager for Australia, Manitowoc

Rodger Weste, manager industrial, WGA On the major trends: Definitely the upgrade in safety systems, in line with what the industry’s doing these days. Cranes and attitudes are quite different to what they were back then. There’s definitely the trend towards all-terrain-type cranes; your traditional truckies are less popular. A key difference is that it’s cleaned up its act. 10 years ago, there were quite a few operators working to a far lesser standard. Whereas now there’s a very high standard of safety in the industry.

On the industry’s changing needs: Over that period, it’s sort of up-and-down. We recently had a few years of very quiet workloads causing uncertainty. A lot of the crane industry’s been through a fair bit of pain for two or three years. Business was really really booming for a long time prior, and then obviously we slowed down for the last few years due to the decline in mining and exploration to name a few. It looks like we’ve weathered that now, and things are starting to look healthy again, which is great. The decline definitely affected plant and personnel within all crane and transport companies, which has a major effect on the way they can run their businesses. It is great to see that most maintained a high level of safety and professionalism throughout.

On CAL’s role in the sector: I’ve been involved with the magazine for the last 12 years. It gives a sound report of what’s going on with the industry, keeps you updated with who’s doing what. It’s quite good.

February/March 2018

10 years ago: From our perspective, Australia 10 years ago was the absolute pinnacle of craziness. With the mine sites going a thousand miles an hour, with oil and gas going crazy, with infrastructure strong; and everybody trying to get ahead of the game because they could see business going everywhere. So, we had extremely strong backlogs and people buying cranes for prospecting business. Most of these big projects were overlapping, so you needed to get more cranes to cover both. This was at a time when the exchange rates were extremely good, and China was booming with double digit growth. With that being said, the boom pushed costs out of whack.

Even though we were having great sales success and the rental companies were all stretched to breaking point, the overall crane industry was not making the type of money you’re supposed to be making in boom times. It was an absolute time of excess, and it wasn’t just Australia, it was everywhere.

10 years ago, the focus was probably 80/20 resources work to construction work, today it is just the opposite.

On today’s machines: Over the last 10 years, we have increased the capacity, you get longer booms, and generally our cranes are lighter so you can travel better on the road. One of the things that, in the last 10 years we’ve all suffered through, is the emissions standards changes in Europe and around the world. They went from Tier 3 to Tier 4 Interim to Tier 4 Final - and now they’re moving on to Tier 5. This whole thing between Tier 3 and Tier 4 Final was excruciatingly painful. The engines and the emissions equipment

that goes in to the cranes are heavier and larger and sometimes in inconvenient places.

You had things like 1m of straight pipe going at specific angle, and wouldn’t you know, there’s an outrigger beam in the way… so we all needed to redesign our cranes.

Almost all the crane manufacturers had a lull in 2012, 2013, 2014, even 2015. There was not a whole lot of new models coming out, because it was just taking so much time and energy to redesign the cranes with the new engines. So, in the last three years, our new models have started to roll out. We have a whole new range of all-terrain cranes with single-engine technology now. And when you have single-engine, combined with Megatrak, you can start putting the weight where you want it. Instead of having 500kg of engine in the upper, you can have that weight in boom structure or chassis depth and removable counterweights. There are a lot of innovations that we have been using to gain advantage on capacity, boom length and weights.

Why he reads CAL: The part that I like is that it’s not just a depository for manufacturers to give you stories. You guys have some editorial input; I think you guys seem to take more care to get more interesting stories.

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10TH ANNIVERSARY

Jeff Wilson, equipment finance broker, specialty - cranes and construction, Finlease On notable regulatory changes: The most significant change in the past 10 years is taxrelated and has only just occurred in June 2017 and that is the recalibration of the annual income which determines a small business. This recalibration now allows companies with an annual income of $10 million or less to obtain the massive tax breaks previously only available to companies with an annual income of $2 million or less. This has opened up the ability for many medium sized crane companies to actively claim depreciation rates of up to 30% (diminishing value) across their entire fleet of assets if they actively elect to do so.

This recalibration achieves many outcomes: an ability to substantially increase depreciation expenses as a non-cash expense, an ability to immediately write off asset purchases under $20,000, an ability to sell existing assets without an immediate tax liability created through profit on sale (as all assets sit within a pool of assets where the overall value is simply reduced), and an ability to pre-pay many deductible expenses before the end of a financial year.

Expectations for the next 10 years: Certainly, the next 5-10 years see a particularly buoyant environment for the crane industry as they ride the present construction, infrastructure and alternate energy boom with the sleeper being the mining sector which is showing strong signs of a resurgence. This landscape will see many companies expand their crane fleets.

This expansion requires significant amounts of finance to pay for this capital investment and those companies who do not have their crane debts spread over a broader base of supportive lenders could well run into “peak debt” head room issues with their existing banks. Crane companies would be well advised to spread their debt early in this cycle so they have established “runs on the board” with a broader base of financiers to ensure their next growth cycle is well supported.

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Danny Black, general manager, Terex Australia and president, CICA

Chris Logan, Gleason Cranes

On changes in the sector: We’ve certainly seen technology playing a bigger role in crane operation, and in design. One of our products [a pick and carry crane] has a computer system that will de-rate the machine on any slope, at any articulation, and we didn’t have the computing power to do that 10 years ago. It’s actually doing it on the fly, rather than just having a look-up table. So, from a technology point of view, that’s been a fundamental change. From an industry perspective, through 2008, in the GFC, Australia was very fortunate to have a new mining product in LNG. The investment in new start-up mines was probably at a previously unseen level. And that certainly was very good for the crane industry. From a Terex perspective, we peaked in 2012. Whilst we did go down a little bit during the GFC, by 2010 it was turning around. The growth after that, from LNG, was unsurpassed. And that’s obviously left a big void in our construction cycle after those mines went from construction to production.

On legislative changes: Many, to be honest. We’ve seen the NHVR come into play. We’ve seen Safe Work Australia. The government obviously wanted to have one national Occupational Health and Safety standard, rather than separate state legislations.

That probably hasn’t been too successful in taking off.

CICA’s view of CAL’s role: Putting forward the voice of our members, and of the industry. To give real-life cases and interviews, to give insight into regulations. And to be an independent source of information.

Trends and changes: When the mining cycle stopped, which it did fairly suddenly, it took the last two to four years for most of the crane companies to divest of the cranes which they bought specially for the mines. Quite a lot of people went broke because they couldn’t get rid of their cranes quickly enough. Quite a lot of other companies were strong enough to hold the cranes in storage whilst they disposed of them. That’s pretty much all done, we’re 99% clear. All the crane companies that are left standing now are those that have been able to dispose of their surplus equipment.

Forecast for the next 10 years: Now that the mines are on their way back, they’re looking at re-buying cranes. It’s slowly starting to happen, but it’s not like it was before. The difference is now, the country is running on state infrastructure. All the state governments are spending vast sums of money on infrastructure and that’s creating excellent sales for cranes, both new and used. It’s not the mining sector which is the driving force, it’s the state governments. There’s a lot of work out there on infrastructure, through the states. These projects are not short ones. They take five, six and seven years to come through.

And the underlying economy’s very strong now. Demand is mainly now coming through roads and infrastructure. And demand will remain over the years.

On CAL’s value: It’s country-specific information. You talk about all the things in Australia, not just in one state; and projects around Australia. Whereas international magazines give Australia just a small spot here and there.

February/March 2018

Heading Intro

David Serg, general manager, Preston Hire Notable trends and milestones: We have found there is more expectance of the smaller telescopic crawler cranes, in particular piling contractors opting for our larger telescopic cranes over lattice boom cranes. A trend we have also noticed in the past decade is our mini crawler range assisting/relieving tower cranes on many projects, which proves to be a more cost-effective alternative for the builder.

On how Preston Hire has evolved: We have grown dramatically in the past 10 years from a fleet of 10-15 cranes now up to 100+ cranes.

Our model range is now broader. We have larger lifting capacity cranes. Also in the past year, we added crane specific specialists which have increased our staff and customer safety awareness.

On what Preston expects from CAL: To see trends in the industry and latest news, and also the ability to showcase our cranes and what is happening in our company. We do find Crane and Lifting is best suited to advertise for us, for our target market as also we feel it is the peak subscription for the crane industry. In next 10 years, we expect Cranes and Lifting to still be bringing relevant news in growing industry.

Cranes and Lifting has always highlighted relevant changes and trends within the sector and hopefully will continue to report on and give a platform for the industry.

Angela Anderson, director - crane sales, Radius Cranes Key changes in the industry and the company: Over recent years technology, added safety features to equipment, along with stringent paperwork have added costs to the industry. The goal of our Radius tower crane sales team is to offer our customers the best advice to allow their company to expand with the right luffing or flattop tower crane based around the fact that weights and measures are increasing 10%-15% every year.

Trends and challenges: Modularisation of structures up to 40 to 60 levels high demand both luffing and flattop tower cranes with added lifting capacity from 40t to 90t, e.g. new electric luffing tower cranes with single line capacity of 32t offer exceedingly high hook speeds lifting of 8000kg up the building at 135m per minute.

Radius would like to see the retirement of 20-30-year-old tower cranes that have dominated the industry and are now prolonging project completion.

What Radius wants to see in CAL: More informative information on the use of high capacity construction tower cranes.

Tutt Bryant On milestones and changes: Throughout the past decade we have seen the mining boom replaced with a lot of smaller infrastructure projects, resulting in larger capacity cranes and the greater capacity of all-terrain cranes to be roadable in Australia.

For Tutt Bryant, the major highlight would have to be providing the largest capacity crawler crane based in Australia (CC8800-1). As crawler crane specialists, Tutt Bryant is at the forefront of bringing into Australia the latest in technologies from partners in Asia and Europe. Recent additions to our national crane hire fleet include Australia’s first and only Manitowoc MLC650.

How the company has evolved: The Tutt Bryant team, traditionally well versed in machinery, has built on this skillset over the last decade, developing an engineering focus with extra emphasis on lift design, alternate lifting and specialised transportation utilising cranes up to 1600t, gantries up to 1100t, modular trailers and SPMT up to 5000t as well as full turnkey project execution. Tutt Bryant is also the exclusive distributor of HSC crawler cranes in Australia. The recent introduction of the next generation SCX-3 cranes sees a number of clever advancements that lift crane performance and bring to the market a level of versatility not previously seen. The new SCX3 range currently encompasses the SCX800A-3, SCX1000A-3, SCX1200A-3, SCX1500A-3 and SCX3500-3. Further models to complete the SCX-3 series are expected in the near future.

CAL’s role: Cranes and Lifting has always highlighted relevant changes and trends within the sector and hopefully will continue to report on and give a platform for the industry.

CL CL

February/March 2018

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Q&A

There’s no stopping Cheryl Woodhart Cheryl Woodhart has been in the crane industry for some 30 years and has accomplished much during that time, both professionally and for the sector. From selling an $18 million crane to being CICA’s longest serving female director, the last three decades have been anything but dull, writes Jacqueline Ong.

T

oday, Woodhart is the general manager mobile cranes at SA-based RMB Service Group, the company she and her husband set up in 2009, fitting seeing it was her husband who drew her into the crane world 30 years ago.

JO: Tell me more about the early years - how did you get into the crane sector?

CW: When my husband left Brambles to work for himself, I started doing his books and began to take an interest in what the machines do. I then became involved in our local association, which was called the South Australian Crane Association back then. By the time I became an executive, we sold our business to a company here in SA. At the time, the company I was working for took over the agency for Manitowoc, with a focus on Grove products and my boss said to me: “Cheryl, you’re the only one with experience in mobile cranes.” So, I headed up the mobile crane division in that company and being female in the industry at that time was pretty extraordinary - there were no other females around doing that particular job. I still remember my first crane sale. It was meant to be one crane but I ended up selling two and I was pretty chuffed.

From there, I became more involved in the sector, visiting factories for instance, and became the president of the local crane association for about five years. I later applied for the position on the national board, becoming the first female to sit on the board of directors.

JO: What were the biggest challenges in your 30-year career?

CW: Breaking through a male-dominated sector to make a name for yourself and gain the trust of your male counterparts. I knew a bit technically but not as much as some of the 36

guys out there so I had to work a little bit harder; I had to make sure that I was always there to answer their questions and make sure that our technicians, if there was a problem with our customers’ machines, were quick to get to the breakdown so that the cranes could get back on the road. That was the biggest challenge but once I got there, it was okay. The breakthrough came in 2004/05 when I started selling mobile cranes. Within a two-year period, I sold about 17 cranes to different organisations and people began to understand my passion. That’s my biggest thing and one that people always point out - my passion for the industry. Today, I get treated like one of the blokes.

JO: When you think back on the time before you became “one of the blokes”, are there any interesting or funny incidents that come to mind?

CW:The one big memory I have, and it’s a special memory more than a funny one, is travelling overseas with customers and the Manitowoc Group. I remember travelling to China on one occasion and I was the only female in the group. We were catching the underground train and there were so many Chinese all crowded into the train. I was with about eight customers and people I worked with in the industry and they said: “Cheryl, just get in the middle of us, just hang on to us, and we’ll get into the train. Don’t move.” I did that and it was just this happy group of people around me.

JO: That’s a lovely memory. When you think about your career, what would you say is your favourite moment?

CW: Putting the deal together for a Manitowoc 21000 that was sold to the Australian Submarine Corporation. Back then, that machine was worth $18 million! Having said

that, it doesn’t matter if it’s a smaller crane.

When I sell a 55t crane, I still get as excited to know that I’ve delivered and the customer’s happy. I’ll see it on the road and go yea, that’s cool, I sold that crane to that guy.

JO: What do you think have been the most significant changes in the mobile crane space?

CW: The mobile crane sector has become so much safer. My uncle used to ride the hook and obviously no one rides the hook anymore but I remember maybe 20 years ago, you had this god-like status if you could overload your crane and not tip over. Everyone thought, wow what a good operator, and nobody wanted to have data loggers in their machines because people wouldn’t be able to exceed and had been overloading their machines. Now, the owners want data loggers in their machines to make sure the operators are doing the right thing, which in itself is a massive coup for the industry.

JO: And what do you think the future looks like?

CW: Booms are going to get longer, lighter, and lift more. This means we need better operators, which is the challenge for the industry at the moment - we don’t have a lot of experienced operators and you can go from no licence to having an open ticket in six weeks with no experience.

CICA has now launched CrewSafe and we’re introducing that to the construction industry your tier 1 and tier 2 construction guys - and we’re telling them this is where we want to get our operators trained and asking them to get on-board to make sure that’s the path that all operators go down. Everyone recognises that during the mining boom, people went out and February/March 2018

Cheryl Woodhart is a veteran in the crane industry, with a career spanning some three decades.

got their licences and were accepted because they didn’t have a choice. But I think that within five years, because of our strong partnerships in construction and our work with the union with CraneSafe, you’ll start to see some very good operators come out of the system.

We can’t have such a massive gap with the older, experienced operators starting to retire.

Education is the key for our industry - educating operators on how to perform well and control a machine that has the potential to be extremely dangerous if used incorrectly.

JO: Speaking of CICA, you were on the board from 2010-2017, what are some of your contributions that you’re most proud of?

CW: Back then, we were all separate identities - each state had its own association. But for a very long time, we felt that we would have a bigger voice if we were one nation, so to speak.

I sat on the working group for the transition to a national organisation and it was a hard job convincing people that the move was truly for the betterment of the association because it’s a bit like politics, each state didn’t want to lose their status or control, seeing that every state had their own financials. It took two years to convince the states that this was the right way to go and it was a massive achievement, which I’m proud to be a part of.

And CICA has evolved over the last seven years. CICA now has a portal for members where they can access their own information on all cranes, their operators with CrewSafe, traineeships, etc. NSW currently has traineeships and SA, WA and Queensland are currently looking at their legislation and the grants that can be offered to put up the traineeships as well. With CrewSafe, we’re saying that we can get some operators up to speed within that five-year period but we’re February/March 2018

also hoping that the traineeships in each state will become bigger and be able to put all these trainees through the system so that they get a good understanding of rigging, dogging, operating, and maintenance of cranes.

CraneSafe is now branching out to other parts like tower cranes and vehicle loading cranes, all in a bid to make sure other sectors within the crane industry are a lot of safer. CICA is also working with the road authorities, including the NHVR and that’s a massive task in itself to make sure our members are happy and the permit system is working well. The organisation is also dealing with WorkSafe on a national and state level - another very important task.

The future for CICA is looking good and more people are joining CICA because they can see the benefits.

CICA has an extremely strong future.

They’ve got youth on their side, they’re passionate and the CEO, Brandon Hitch, has taken the organisation to the next level.

JO: And as the younger generation starts to enter and rise in this sector, do you have any advice for young women embarking on a career in the crane industry?

CW: Be yourself and stay true to yourself.

CL

37

RIGGING AND LIFTING

Nobles managing director, Guy Roberts, viewing a customer’s VR crane simulator training session.

CL

38

February/March 2018

Adopting digital technology a noble cause?

How many times have we heard the terms “traditional” and “conservative” used to described the lifting and rigging industry in the context of digitalisation? Far too many times. But what does it take for the sector to jump on the digital revolution band wagon and is it worth it? Jacqueline Ong finds out.

February/March 2018

N

ow, this conservative attitude can be considered warranted. After all, it is born out of a need to be cautious and meticulous when offering lifting and rigging services. Interestingly, while the sector may be considered traditional in a number of ways, the clients that it services - the world’s largest oil and gas and mining companies as an example, are early adopters of digital technologies and are pulling the lifting and rigging sector along on their journey. And there are benefits to be had by digitising processes, as proven by Nobles.

The Australian lifting, rigging, service and engineering provider has a history that spans more than 100 years and is an early adopter of technology. Over the last 40 years, lifting and rigging standards in Australia have improved and as a result, regular quarterly and annual inspections of rigging gear have become a requirement. In many cases, users also need to obtain, store and reproduce various certifications and proof of inspections for their own customers and government agencies on demand. As standards became more stringent, Nobles made sure to evolve to meet their clients’ needs.

Conducting rigging and lifting gear inspections are a big part of Nobles’ business and some seven years ago, the company took the digital plunge, introducing an online register for its clients - a first in the sector.

“The proliferation of lifting gear used by medium to large businesses means these companies may have hundreds or thousands of lifting and rigging gear. It is impractical for them to do inspections by themselves or to keep a register of the various equipment’s compliance - they simply do not have the resources to do so,” Nobles managing director Guy Roberts explained.

“Now, they contract experts to do inspections and we introduced the Nobles “Tech-Inspect” lifting and rigging asset management system, which maintains a register of compliance of lifting gear for our customers. Customers can access that register through a portal on our site and this provides them with a cost-effective guarantee that their gear is good to go.”

The benefit for Nobles’ clients is evident.

They have oversight of their equipment and it is an effective solution to an age-old challenge faced by the sector - making sure lifting and rigging gear works when it needs to work. Seven years on and Nobles is not resting on its laurels, recently implementing the third generation of Tech-Inspect that adopts cloud-based and smar t phone- enabled technologies.

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RIGGING AND LIFTING

Partnering with Australian technology firm Loc8, Nobles has launched an app that allows technicians to use their smart phones to record inspections and send updates to a customer’s register in real-time. While the move promises to improve efficiency for its customers, it also bodes well for Nobles.

“The mining boom was a wonderful boost to the lifting and rigging industry but when it stopped, it stopped quickly, leading to challenges for businesses like Nobles.

We needed to quickly right size our business and make organisational changes to our people, processes and systems, to bring us back to profitability,” Roberts said.

“Key to that was our partnership with Loc8 to design the app as we had a lot of administration work at our branches that involved manually producing customer lifting equipment registers from our previous system. The app enabled significant labour cost savings as well as greatly speeding up the time it takes for customers to get their up-to-date lifting registers, which are now available online, anytime, on demand.”

Nobles hasn’t stopped there. Over the last 12 months, the company has been working on a fully ERP-integrated, online specialty

40

lifting and rigging store, which it launched in February. The store has more than 1500 SKUs ready to go and the company has promised next day despatch for equipment in stock.

“It’s a great way to transact with small business in Australia, which is the backbone of our country. These businesses don’t have a lot of time or resources and want to check stock availability, prices and buy online 24/7.

Going back in history, Nobles had a physical presence at every branch in Australia to sell to trade and retail customers but we found that to be uneconomic for some locations.

Over the last couple of years, we’ve shut a number of retail sales counters around Australia, which has made it difficult for some retail customers to deal with us. By opening Nobles Online, we’re welcoming back retail customers seeking speciality lifting and rigging products,” Roberts said, adding that he expects the online store to drive a 5% growth for the business.

Turning to training, Nobles acknowledged that it has been especially difficult for the sector to train and maintain crane operator competence. Not only is training a long process, it is costly given courses are typically conducted offsite or onsite using cranes that

would otherwise be productively hired.

At the end of last year, Nobles partnered with American firm, ITI, a specialist in virtual reality training, to exclusively distribute the latter’s virtual reality crane simulators (pictured) in Australia and New Zealand.

“The benefit to crane operators is that they can train their operators to a superior productivity and safety standard and keep those operators at that standard in a very costeffective way at their own premises without risking any of their equipment,” Roberts said.

More on the virtual crane simulator can be found in the November/December issue of Cranes and Lifting but here’s the take-home message: If Nobles is anything to go by, there is a place for digital technology in lifting and rigging.

“The lifting and rigging sector must continue to digitise its processes to become more productive and efficient in order to match the speed at which our customers are doing the very same thing. Our customers are quite rightly very demanding of the industry, wanting quality products delivered quickly and efficiently, and for us to be able to do that productively and profitably, we need to match CL that drive,” Roberts concluded.

February/March 2018

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RIGGING AND LIFTING

Dealing with head height restrictions This is the first article in a regular series by Stuart Edwards of Edwards Heavy Lift on rigging matters.

Stuart Edwards is well known to the industry, initially in presenting Boom Logistics and John Holland entries in the CICA Lift of the Year, before starting his own business and consulting to many of you. He was co-winner of the Innovation Award at the most recent CICA national crane conference, as well as one of the presenters at a rigging workshop there. If you have a rigging topic that you would like to see covered, please contact the editor or Stuart Edwards at stuart@edwardsheavylift.com.

O

ne of the perennial issues that our industry often comes up with innovative solutions for is limited head height. This may be because the crane does not have sufficient capacity to operate with increased boom length, or there is an obstruction that the load needs to fit under. In this article, we look at some of the options available.

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DUAL CRANE LIFT One of the more obvious solutions with a long load that would require long rigging and boom lengths is a dual crane lift. Although the standards rightly require an assessment of whether the dual crane lift is necessary, on many occasions a thorough risk assessment will determine that a dual crane lift is not only more cost-effective and technically feasible but also safer. Pictured is a dual crane lift of deck units. As one can see, clearance to the powerlines was a challenge for this project. Using the two cranes ensured a safe and efficient lift.

February/March 2018

LIFTING BEAM/SPREADER A lifting beam may on occasion be a great solution to minimise head height.

However, as the length between lift points becomes longer, the feasibility decreases due to the mass of the lifting beam or spreader. One thing to be careful of here is that if the centre of gravity of the load is higher than the lift points, a lifting beam or spreader with low sling angles may not provide sufficient stability.

The lifting beam on the left provides a lower lift height.

However, as the dimension ‘a’ is greater than ‘b’, the lift is not stable and should not be attempted.

CANTILEVER BEAM Sometimes you may need to lift under an obstruction. A typical example would be lifting concrete panels on high rise buildings where the crane hoist rope would clash with the structure if attempting a lift of the panel to its final placement position. Pictured is one solution using the existing rigging equipment of a crane company without any other specialised equipment. In this arrangement, a counterweight is rigged to the rear of the lifting beam. When the beam is not lifting a load, the beam hangs rotated backwards. To lift a load, the rigging is connected then the crane hoists and the beam rotates till everything is balanced.

The load can then be lifted under the obstruction and the process reversed to release the lifting beam. For further explanation, a 3D animation of this can be found at edwardsheavylift.com.

More advanced versions of this concept are available, for example using rack and pinion remote controlled drives to control the travel of a counterweight.

BOOM TELESCOPING Sometimes you may want to get under an obstruction such as a shed roof or door, but then need to extend the boom to achieve sufficient height and/or radius. With a full power boom, this is naturally possible as a matter of course - something that is used to great effect in the Franna crane.

However, this is also possible for many cranes with a pinned hydraulic boom. Many manufacturers supply an unpinned boom chart, which may reduce the capacity significantly compared to the pinned boom chart; but will solve your problem nonetheless. Practically speaking, it is always best to only extend or retract a boom under load when necessary. Ensure that the wear pads are suitably maintained and keep the boom angle up as high as possible. Only ever do this in strict accordance with the manufacturer’s guidelines.

ATTACHMENTS Sometimes using an attachment on the boom head of a crane can be an excellent solution. Load28 has won several CICA Lift of the Year awards for its glass lifting attachments. Gillespies has recently developed a solution for a client installing wall panels in a tunnel. As one can imagine in a tunnel, head height is extremely limited. Gillespies’ solution is as simple as it is ingenious: an attachment that pins where the Rhino attachment would normally go; and adds 600mm in lift height.

JACKING AND TRAILER SOLUTIONS There is a whole another world we could explore. However, using platform trailers or SPMTs can be a simple and cost-effective solution, as can the use of jacking systems.

CL

February/March 2018

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Q&A

Walk with me In October, Cranes and Lifting editor Greg Keane travelled to Adelaide for the annual CICA conference.

While there, he invited members of the sector on a walk up Mt Lofty from Waterfall Gully. Immediate past national president of the Civil Contractors Federation (CCF) Tony Baulderstone took him up on the offer and chatted to Keane about his time at the organisation.

Tony Baulderstone at the Mt Lofty summit, with Adelaide sprawled in the background.

Who is Tony Baulderstone?

Tony Baulderstone is the son of Albert (Bert) William Baulderstone, who started as a bricklayer, studied quantity surveying at night and built a business that became the largest builder in South Australia. Tony studied engineering and then joined the Highways Department in SA (now Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure or DPTI), getting involved in design, planning and contract management.

After a 20-year career in the department, during which he rose to a senior management level, Tony left to become a partner in civil construction contractor Bardavcol Pty Ltd at a time when Mike Barnhurst, the last of the original three founding partners (Barnhurst, Davison, Coulson) after whom the business was named, was looking to retire and the next generation was stepping up. Tony was a partner in that business with Darren Foster from 2000 to 2012, at which time he decided to retire from the business so that he could devote sufficient time to pursue some other interests, including serving the CCF at national level, first as vice president and then as president. He stepped down from CCF involvement in 2016, and now operates a modest development company, Jenton Projects Pty Ltd, with his wife Jenny.

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GK: What did you most enjoy about your time as a contractor?

TB: There was a real buzz when you put a bid in, the bid was accepted and then you built something that you could be proud of - you could see the results of your efforts. You didn’t really get that in the Highways Department: you were involved in projects, but not to the same level as the contractor who actually builds it.

I was conscious that I hadn’t had the same start as most contractors, who start as an operator or on the tools and build their business up from scratch. When I became a contractor, I already had a career and came into the business at a different level to someone starting out with nothing. This is something that I’ve had to be conscious of when I’ve been involved in industry associations.

The other thing that I enjoyed as a contractor - and continued to enjoy during my time with the CCF - was the camaraderie with other contractors. You can be rivals in business, but there’s still that connection with other contractors. I don’t think you get that same feeling as a builder: it’s a bigger and more diverse sector so perhaps that’s the reason why.

GK: What were your highlights during your time with the CCF? TB: This had started before I was heavily involved

at national level, but over time, governments started to pay more attention to the CCF. We had been pushing a message of investing in infrastructure for some time, and governments started to wake up to the benefits of investing in infrastructure and creating jobs; and saw that it could also be popular with the community.

We started to get more access to politicians, and to engage with them more. It was a gradual process, but it meant that contractors started to have a voice with the people who made decisions on infrastructure spending.

In the latter period, you could really notice that contractors got a lot more recognition: CCF representatives were taken more seriously and it was possible to get in to see ministers.

GK: So, if that was a highlight, what were some of the disappointments?

TB: The short-term nature of governments means that there isn’t enough long-term planning on infrastructure. With three- or four-year terms, the main focus seems to be on the immediate term. Priorities can be set for political benefit rather than for objective reasons1.

The relationship between politicians and public servants changed in my term in the workforce. In the early days, the relevant minister would visit his department and seek February/March 2018

The evidence of an earlier landslip, which closed the track and the café at the base of the walk, was still clearly visible.

Consult Australia, the industry association representing consulting firms operating in the built and natural environment sectors, released a report early this year on Infrastructure Governance in Australia. It calls on all governments in Australia to enact model legislation to establish independent statutory infrastructure bodies (termed ‘IBodies’) that embody core components of independence, planning, assessment and prioritisation. The benefits are outlined as depoliticisation of infrastructure spending through establishment of long-term priorities, provision of independent and expert advice; creating an infrastructure pipeline that will deliver jobs and growth; and transparent, evidence-based decision-making.

Parliamentary approval would be required to deliver projects not in the pipeline, or to alter its priorities.

1

a briefing from the senior people in the department. That changed, and politicians would summon the public servants to their office and decide priorities that were at times very different to the advice they received.

To some extent, Infrastructure Australia has improved the situation in evaluating and prioritising infrastructure spending, and taking a more long-term view; but it hasn’t stopped commitments being made that are outside the priorities of Infrastructure Australia.

GK: Enough of the serious stuff: let’s talk about the walk. You’ve done well: I know you were only planning to come part of the way with me but you made it to the top. It’s a great view, looking out over Adelaide. How do you feel, now that you’re here?

TB: I’ll probably curse you for a couple of days, but after that I think I’ll have a feeling of accomplishment that I’ve done something I didn’t think I could do. I’d like to get a bit fitter, and do it again.

GK: Thanks for being my first partner in Walk with Me. It’s been a real CL honour to have your company.

February/March 2018

45

PROJECT Panel handover with rigging connections being made to the top of the panel to allow the 220t crane to place the rear panel.

Teamwork for difficult Coffs Harbour precast job Coffs City Cranes (CCC) was engaged by builder R&D Spagnolo to erect 34 tilt-up panels at the Wet Seal Development in Forge Drive, Coffs Harbour (NSW). Greg Keane reports.

T

he panels ranged from 3t to 22.68t in weight, 830mm to 7500mm in width and 8230mm to 8580mm in height.

The size of the largest panels ruled out precast as an option.

CCC supervisor Sam Smith undertook extensive on-site liaison with the builder and Fine Form Precast (which was engaged by the builder to form the panels), and he regards the planning as the most difficult but critical aspect of the job.

The back wall of an existing shed was within 300mm of the new shed panels, so tilting panels into position was not an option.

If tilting was reversed to stand panels in the opposite direction, this would have made it impossible to de-rig the lifting gear from the panels once they were positioned, and would have meant that the crews had to brace panels on the dead man side.

46

The only option remaining was to do a crane transfer, with one crane standing the panels and another crane lifting them into position.

A further reason for this option was that, with the size and weight of the panels, there was a likelihood that picking up the panels with top lifters would damage, crack or even snap the panels when they were released from the slab.

As engineers would not allow cranes to set up on the slab, this meant that a 220t crane was required to provide sufficient capacity at the required reach to place the panels for the back wall, which were the heaviest. CCC did not have a crane of this size, but has a working arrangement with Mid Coast Cranes to access its 220t crane when it requires this size of crane.

Planning the locations for panels to be poured to firstly allow the CCC’s 110t crane to stand the rear wall panels and then ensure that the 220t crane was within radius to place them required considerable thought.

With large voids for windows and doors in many of the panels, considerable engineering was required to position additional reinforcing bars in critical areas, and to optimise the location of the lifters to minimise the risk of damage to the panels.

While a painted finish was to be applied to the panels after erection, care was taken during erection to ensure there were no gouges, scratches or chips on the panels.

Lifting of all panels was undertaken over two days. With the large sail area of many of the panels, the weather forecast was taken into account in planning the lift dates, and

February/March 2018

The 220t crane was required because of the reach required to place the rear panels.

wind conditions were constantly monitored throughout the lifting program.

The 110t crane was configured with 30.9m of main boom and 35t of counterweight,

while the 220t crane had 34m of main boom and 71t of counterweight. For the transfer lifts, the 110t crane was rigged with a 35t centre lift spreader bar; with six equalising

sheaves and ropes and eight 5t swiftlifts.

The 220t crane was rigged with two 15t equalising sheaves and ropes; along with CL four 10t edge lifters.

The rear panels were within 300mm of an existing building, limiting the panel erection options.

February/March 2018

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INNOVATION Lifting beam at work in Onslow.

Innovative lifting beam wins award The transport cabinet used to store and transport the lifting beam.

The Innovation category in the Lift of the Year Awards presented at the 2017 CICA National Crane Conference in Adelaide went to Edwards Heavy Lift (EHL) and RUD for their joint design and fabrication of a lifting beam for Bechtel. This is used for servicing methane compressors at the Chevron Wheatstone project in Onslow (WA), writes Greg Keane.

B

echtel initially contacted Stuart Edwards of EHL to design and supply a lifting beam that could reach outside the path of the JDN overhead cranes used at Wheatstone.

A counterweighted beam was rejected as being comparatively cumbersome in both set-up and operation, as well as being heavier.

Edwards’ design comprised the lifting beam, an oversize ring for attaching it to the hook of the overhead crane, an air hoist and a pneumatic rack-and-pinion drive for trolleying the hoist along the beam, a pedestal hand control, and a steel cabinet with fork pockets for transporting and storing the beam. The beam uses air hoists already on site and surplus to requirements. Limit switches prevent over-travel of the pneumatic drive.

EHL engaged RUD to fabricate the lifting beam, as it did not have its own facilities for this. The two parties have a history of working together on projects.

48

Two kits were supplied: one for each of the two trains in operation at Chevron’s Onslow facility. They are used at 11 locations on site, and are stored in Perth when not in operation.

The kit requires an initial set-up to centre the hoist on the beam but after this, there is no ongoing requirement to do this before operation.

Its primary purpose was to remove the compressor housings, but it can now be used for removing and installing gearboxes on the compressors, and removing the internal rotor when a compressor requires a rebuild.

The hoist can lift off centre, and then trolleys the load to the balance point of the beam before the overhead crane is moved. The smooth, precise operation of the hoist and trolley is important for protecting the high quality machined faces on the compressor casing and internals from damage.

The hand control impressed site personnel

with its large, easy-to-read actuating buttons. In summer months in Onslow, the high temperature and humidity can impair vision through safety glasses, and at times operators were forced to remove gloves to get a better feel for the actuator buttons of other equipment. This is not an issue with the lifting beam controls.

The transport cabinet also drew favourable comment, as it provides access to the air hoist from both sides for servicing and maintenance.

When asked if the lifting beam was site-specific or could be used in other applications, Edwards told Cranes and Lifting: “It could be used anywhere the reach of a gantry crane needs to be increased.

For smaller applications where cost was an issue, the pneumatic rack-and-pinion travel drive could be replaced with a hand chain drive and it could be supplied without a CL storage cabinet.”

February/March 2018

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Building a “city” in weeks From July 21 to 23, 2017, the Parklands at North Byron Bay hosted the three-day music festival Splendour in the Grass, attended by 32,500 people per day, and Coates Hire was an integral part of building the infrastructure that made the festival possible. Jan Arreza reports.

D

uring the three-day event, the 267-hectare Parklands area at Yelgun in North Byron was host to three performance stages and a DJ area, as well as a designated camping ground that was home to some 20,000 campers.

The contractors who set-up the festival faced tight time constraints, having only three weeks to construct the small “city”, which had to be fitted out with power, water, dwellings and toilets. Then, at the conclusion of the event, there were only nine days allocated to pack up the entire temporary infrastructure.

Denis Sheahan Event Management (DSEM), the agent responsible for engaging suppliers for Splendour in the Grass, has turned to Coates Hire for the past three years to provide the Coates employees doing maintenance on a lighting tower.

50

temporary infrastructure needs of the festival.

“We built, essentially, a small town and we had to provide everything on-site that a small town would have, and we had three weeks to build it - Coates Hire was essential in getting it right,” Zoe Aukeela, suppliers manager at DSEM, said.

“Coates Hire conducted 270 truck movements during the contract, and in the set-up phase of the festival, 137 buildings were delivered by Coates Hire, most of them in the first 11 days of the build. The pressure to have so many buildings delivered in such a short time was compounded by limits on the set-up activity to the hours of 7am to 5pm. It was very busy and every delivery had to arrive through the depot manager. It’s tightly managed and the Coates Hire team was pivotal to it working efficiently.”

Coates Hire project manager for installations events, Brendan Woods, who oversaw the influx of buildings and generators and associated equipment for the event, said in terms of infrastructure requirements, Splendor in the Grass was one of the biggest events of its kind in Australia.

“This included 137 buildings, 92 lighting towers, 71 generators, and 37 pieces of major plant, including boom lifts, scissor lifts and a 45t crane,” Woods detailed.

“The buildings were used for dressing rooms, administration offices, accommodation,

security and the backstage areas - the lighting helped to create a safe environment during night events and for the campers. It’s a major project for us and we spend months in planning and preparation, and fine-tuning it with DSEM.” Pointing to time constraints, Woods said the fleet of equipment had to be minutely planned and coordinated.

“During the installation, we managed 270 truck movements, and every truck had to be offloaded, and the buildings and generators properly located and placed,” Woods said.

“It had to be right the first time, which meant professional planning and using experienced people.”

Coates Hire refuelled the generators 100,000 litres of diesel during the event - as well as provided 24-hour technical support for the generators, buildings and lights.

A core group of six Coates Hire operators lived on-site during this period, and while the total time allowed for packing up the festival was nine days, Coates Hire’s components were limited to four and a half days.

“DSEM works with Coates Hire because the company has the best hire equipment, efficient systems and very good people,” Aukeela said.

“When you build a small town in three weeks, inevitably small changes need to be made. The Coates Hire team is very flexible and resourceful and Brendan uses his industry contacts to get things done. He’s a real problem-solver.”

CL February/March 2018

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