Giant crane debuts on Broadway

The Favco M2480D luffing jib tower crane (1 of 6 cranes on the site) has been erected in the Broadway redevelopment precinct once occupied by the Carlton Brewery and now being redeveloped by Frasers Property.

The Favco is owned by Marr Contracting and used in the construction of the tallest of the twin towers at the One Central Tower residential development being built by Watpac. A landmark feature of this building will be a cantilevered platform supporting a heliostat: a system of fixed and motorised mirrored panels designed to reflect sunlight onto the landscaped terraces during the day and facilitate a theatrical lighting display of the buildings by French lighting artist Yann Kersale at night.

Adding to the French connection will be vertical gardens designed by French botanist Patrick Blanc that will cover 50% of the buildings’ faades with living greenery.

The key task of the large tower crane is to erect the 110t heliostat in a single lift. The Favco M2480 is the largest luffing tower crane in the world, and can lift 330t at a 15m radius, and lift 100t at a 45 m radius to a height of 130m under the hook without the need for support ties.

While the heliostat lift is not scheduled until October, the Favco has been installed recently and will undertake general lifting duties for several weeks prior to lifting steelwork up to 80t, followed by the heliostat. Its high winch speed makes it a viable option on smaller lifts, where most large cranes are too slow for an extended general lift programme.

This project may be the only one in which this crane is seen in an urban environment. It is the concept of its owner Marr Contracting, which has a number of other M2480 cranes in its fleet as well as smaller (but not small) M1680D and M1280D cranes that were also its concept.

These cranes are as common on port and resource projects as they are on highrise building projects. Their relatively small footprint and high capacity make them an ideal alternative to crawler cranes for brownfield construction projects, while their capacity to travel on rail bogies (another Marr input) also makes them suitable for greenfield and wharf construction projects.

A further bonus for coastal projects is that they can operate in 20 m/sec winds, reducing downtime compared to conventional cranes.

Further information: http://marr.com.au