In a bustling city like London, tight spaces are a common theme for most construction sites. Whether you’re dealing with building obstructions, nearby transport hubs, residential areas, or rivers and canals.
Luckily, our modern fleet of city cranes is ideal for working efficiently within restricted spaces.
In this blog, we share some of our successful projects using tower cranes in London and highlight which cranes are most beneficial for urban development sites.
City centre tower crane in busy Kings Cross
We start with ‘The Apex’ construction site in Kings Cross, London. This site had limited space to work within due to its nearby obstruction – a canal, which couldn’t be oversailed. We supplied our Raimondi LRH 174 which was perfect for the job due to its small out-of-service radius and anti-collision AMCS zoning technology which stops the crane from working when it gets to a specified area, in this case, the canal.
The Raimondi LRH 174 crane also saved space because the jib can be specified at different lengths and lifted in short sections minimising the area needed on the ground when installing and dismantling. For this site, the jib had to be split as there was only 28m of space in which to build it. Instead of the conventional method of rope lifting the luffer into place, the jib had to be lifted in two sections and then joined in the air. To ensure the safety of the construction team and the general public, the road was closed for the installation.
Raimondi LRH 174’s key features
Despite being relatively small and lightweight for a tower crane, the LRH 174 does not compromise on lifting capacity.
At the Apex site it was important that the crane could lift 5 tonnes around the building’s perimeter. The LRH 174 has a lift capacity of 5.1tonne at the end of its 35m, and a maximum lift capacity of 10tonnes.
Urban construction site in the heart of London
We erected our Potain MR 309 at a landmark site in Westminster, London to help in the redevelopment of two eight-storey office buildings. It was vital the crane we supplied could work quickly and efficiently in a highly populated, urban area.
Potain MR 309’s key features
We chose this new Potain model, as it has many new, improved features that benefited this city construction site. Including, a simpler tower crane erection, upgraded load charts, a short out-of-service radius (9.5m on a 55/60m jib), and less collars and ties for taller heights and to increase lift capacity.
The crane is also equipped with a Potain Crane Control System (CCS) which helps with faster set-up and unparalleled control, as well as Potain’s CONNECT telematic to optimise fleet management and uptime. The new features make this crane model ideal for high-rise buildings in congested urban sites. To further avoid any collisions or oversailing on this site, we also installed the crane with AMCS zoning technology. Watch how our team erected this tower crane here.
Art Deco cinema conversion in London
Our city tower cranes have also helped residential areas across London. Like this site in Harrow, which saw an Art Deco cinema being converted into a unique residential development, whilst preserving the original façade of the building.
We recommended and installed our Jost 108 luffing jib tower crane with a 42m tower, 40m jib, and a 2.5-tonne load capacity due to its small out-of-service radius which helps avoid oversailing nearby buildings.
It was also important at this site to position the crane with great consideration, to help minimise the risk of damage to the front of the cinema. Read more.
Contact us about your city centre construction site
