UK: Industrial crane manufacturer Street Crane has supplied the BFK joint venture of BAM Nuttall, Ferrovial Agroman and Kier Construction with 10 cranes for use during the construction of the Royal Oak - Farringdon section of the Crossrail tunnel under central London.
The latest is a Goliath crane with a safe working load of 40 tonnes, in use at Oxford Street to lift spoil skips and lower precast elements for the tunnels and the western ticket hall at Tottenham Court Road station.
The double-girder box beam design has twin custom-built hoists, each capable of lifting 20 tonnes. They can be used singly or in tandem depending on the weight and geometry of the load to be moved. The crane has a total height of lift of 37 m, with a normal speed of 1·5 to 15 m/min which can be increased to 23 m/min for loads of 2 tonnes or less.
Ground beams 1·5 m deep were cast 31 m apart to support the rails for the crane legs. The crane spans the beams, and has an additional 5·1 m cantilever at one end so that spoil skips can be offloaded outside the protected excavation area. In addition to shielding the excavation shaft, the ground beams protect the crane from any minor ground movement caused by excavation.
Elsewhere on the Crossrail project, six 10 tonne single-girder cranes are in use at the tunnel segment casting shops, and three rail-running weatherproof Goliath cranes have been installed in the segment storage area.
