450-tonne crane short rigged for University of Glasgow lift

John Sutch Cranes has completed a complex lifting operation at the University of Glasgow, deploying our Liebherr LTM 1450-8.1 tonne mobile crane in short-rigged configuration with 104 tonnes of ballast.

The lift, carried out on a live university campus, required the crane to be configured for a restricted city-centre environment where surrounding buildings, headroom and access dictated the boom set-up.

With reach limited by the constraints of the site, lifting capacity was achieved through ballast rather than configuration, 104 tonnes of it, transported to site and built up before any lifting took place.

Mobilisation alone required two transport loads to bring the crane and rigging to site.

Ground protection was a significant element of the operation. Plastic matting was laid throughout to spread load across campus surfaces and protect the environment beneath, with outrigger positions assessed as part of the lift planning process. A 620 lifting frame was used for the lift itself, with a 20-tonne jack and skates deployed for final positioning - allowing the load to be manoeuvred with millimetre accuracy once the crane had placed it.

Work of this type is a growing part of the John Sutch Cranes portfolio, with the company regularly delivering lifts across university estates, hospitals and other operational buildings where activity has to continue around the works. The company recently completed a similar infrastructure upgrade programme at the University of Liverpool, including chiller exchange works using a 300-tonne Grove GMK6300L-1.

Chris Fisher, Depot Manager at Manchester's John Sutch Cranes yard, said: "Short rigged doesn't mean straightforward lifting - even though we make it easy. When you're working in a confined city-centre setting, the configuration is decided for you by what's around the crane, so the capacity has to come from ballast instead of reach. That means more transport, more time on assembly, and a lift plan that accounts for every metre of it.

"Once the crane's done its part, the jack and skates take over. Positioning a load of that size to the millimetre is patient work, and it's where experience shows. Our team delivered it exactly as planned, on a campus that stayed open throughout."