Gulf Construction Online - Demag cranes make debut on causeway job

Kuwait

Impressive lifting capacities ... the Demag AC 300-6 all-terrain cranes working in tandem.

Demag cranes make debut on causeway job

01 June 2018

Integrated Logistics Company (ILC) relied on the powerful performance of its new Demag AC 300-6 cranes when it was tasked with bringing pre-assembled concrete supports to a construction site near Subiya for the Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Al Sabah Causeway project.

The project marked the first time that Demag’s plant in Zweibrücken, Germany, has supplied a crane of this type to an international customer; it also was the first time that the Kuwaiti logistics service provider used its new Demag AC 300-6 all-terrain cranes. The Demag brand is owned by Terex Corporation, a global manufacturer of lifting and material processing products.

Commenting on the new machines, ILC CEO Saleh Alhuwaidi says: “In addition to quick rigging, the AC 300-6 impressed us with its lifting capacities, which are unmatched in its class, and especially the 80-m-long main boom, used to install the small sections of the precast beam. Because of its compact design, this crane can be used in many different scenarios.”

These properties made the two Demag AC 300-6 cranes the first choice for their initial deployment on the desert construction site. The cranes were tasked with lifting precast concrete components from a hydraulic dolly-type trailer with a turn-table system and placing them at their pre-planned position. Because the steel-reinforced concrete elements each weighed 105 tonnes, were approximately 37 m long, 1-m wide, and 2.3-m tall, the work was best done with a tandem lift.

However, before the lifting could be done, the two Demag AC 300-6 cranes had to be brought to the construction site. The 130-km-long drive from ILC’s yard in Mina Abdullah through the desert went very smoothly, says Alhuwaidi.

The cranes were accompanied by four tractor-trailer rigs which, among other things, transported the required counterweight of approximately 50 tonnes. The crane operators needed just two hours with the help of two riggers apiece to set up the cranes.

“The assembly-friendly design was also decisive for the use of our two Demag AC 300-6 cranes on this construction site since the quick set-up was crucial to adhere to the tight time constraints,” says Alhuwaidi.

For the subsequent tandem lift, the cranes were outfitted with 24.4-m-long main booms, a counterweight of 26.7 tonnes, and an 80-tonne hook block with seven-part reeving. An outrigger support base of 8.68 by 8.48 m provided the required stability. Rigged this way, the cranes were then ready to lift the two 105-tonne concrete beams from the lowbed trailer in two steps in a tandem lift, swivel them sideways in a radius of 9 m, and lower them at the specified location in the desert sand.

Thanks to the cranes’ quick working speed, their exceptional manoeuvrability, and their fast set-up even with just a few people, the ILC team was able to complete the job in just one day.

Alhuwaidi was also pleased with the reliable – and fast – support provided by Demag on the construction site as well as its after-sales support. He was also appreciative of Terex team member Andreas Ginder, who was on-site at the debut of ILC’s new AC 300-6 cranes.

ILC is active across the entire Middle East especially in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. For large projects, ILC has a state-of-the-art fleet equipped with cranes with lifting capacities up to 2,300 tonnes, excavators, compactors, and bulldozers.