Project Description
Titan Cranes and Rigging was selected to supply the tower cranes for Barangaroo project in Sydney NSW, the city’s most prestigious urban renewal project in many years. There were three high rise commercial towers to be constructed and two residential buildings with four levels of basement covering virtually the whole site. Owing to limited construction space and the requirement for multiple hooks to meet the streamlined build schedule a combination of both internal and external climbing cranes were used.
The positioning of tower cranes is of critical importance when planning a high rise project, particularly when you have a very tight site to contend with. There are several methods of allowing the tower crane to keep pace with the construction of the building towers, usually an internal or external climbing crane. On sites with limited footprints it is undoubtedly strategic to have the tower crane located within the building. This allows for the maximum coverage of the tower building with the best capacity over the structure possible.
The project had at its peak fourteen units operating simultaneously on a 44,000 m2 project, some with maximum capacities of 24t (52,900 lbs.) and 36 t (79,400 lbs.). Luffing jib cranes were employed to allow so many cranes to operate in such a confined envelope, and several of them were fitted with special lift shaft climbing system to climb within the building lift core. This allowed up to three tower cranes to service each tower building at one time. All were JASO cranes and were provided by Titan cranes and rigging.
Site constraints and accelerated schedules led to some interesting crane solutions being required – these included:
- Steel grillages cantilevered from basement slabs were used to locate the external cranes, this allowed intricate basement works to proceed unencumbered by tower crane bases, Titan cranes carried out the fabrication of each of these bespoke solutions in house to a total of ten; each one produced to the exacting standards required.
- Electric tower cranes were needed to work to the highest environmental standards on such a high profile project, JASO cranes met and exceeded these stringent environmental requirements.
- A single line pull of 9t / 12t was provided so the required components could be raised to full height in the fastest time possible, this involved designing a bespoke winch system to accomplish this.
- An accelerated jump form schedule led to installing an internal climbing crane many meters above ground level so as not to slow the lift core progress.
- Both builders hoist and tower crane needed to be located within a single lift core. Tight space constraints made the need to have fully operational Alimak hoists travelling between the arms of the internal climbing cranes rolling support chocks a reality, each a bespoke design provided by Titan cranes working closely with Lend Lease’s engineering team.
- The design of the building screens was set at five levels of cover, this led to the need for massive free stands out of the tie yokes to accommodate the staging of the external cranes with the minimum number of climbs. This was accomplished through use of additionally braced super towers at the tie location designed by JASO in combination with bridging columns between two structural floors to spread the loads.
- Titan cranes also designed a bespoke adjustable building tie to handle the high loads imposed and simplify tie installation to minimise down time whilst external climbing is being carried out.
No small challenges indeed!
Titan cranes in conjunction with JASO have managed to provide an outstanding solution that meets the highest performance level of safety available in tower cranes and optimizes total construction time, utilising a can do attitude combined with unique lift shaft climbing systems and two meter square mono block tower leg sections to reduce climbing stages, JASO and Titan cranes and rigging have managed to hit each and every milestone and key date to offer the best solution available among the competition.
