Enerpac gantry system leaps into action on Sydney rail project
22 December 2023When, due to unforeseen issues, a company working on Sydney’s Botany Rail Duplication Project had to make last-minute changes to the way it would transport two concrete bridge girders approximately 800m along a public road, before bringing them within reach of the crane for installation, it turned to Sarens for help.
Firstly, Sarens mobilised equipment from a nearby project, using a trusted third party to transport everything to the job site within a day. It then used an Enerpac SBL1100 gantry system, 30 axle lines of K24 self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs) and a powerpack unit to relocate the two girders.
Because of the nearby Sydney, Australia, airport, the team had to stay below a hard ceiling of 8m maximum, so using a crane was not an option, which is why Sarens deployed the 1,000t capacity gantry to safely lift the beams up and drive the SPMTs underneath. The beams – the first girder measured 20m long and weighed close to 160t, while the second was approximately 18m long and weighed about 140t – were then lashed down and transported to their final destination.
Sarens describes this last-minute challenge as “a triumph” for both itself and the client, infrastructure specialists John Holland.
“Projects like these normally require a few weeks of preparation,” says Michiel de Bodt, technical solutions sales manager at Sarens. “However, we knew what we had to do and had the trust of our client… If we hadn’t delivered, our client would have suffered major delays on their project and we weren’t going to let them down.”
Sweet install
Queensland, Australia-based Crane Logistics recently tackled one of its biggest overhead crane installs yet when it helped fellow Queenslanders NQCranes – an overhead crane service business – to decommission and replace a 50/8t milling train crane for Wilmar Sugar Australia at its Proserpine Mill with a new, custom-built NQCranes/Stahl crane.
