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Teams from John Sutch Cranes have completed a series of precision lifts in Wales this week, placing cooling modules into position at a live power site - the latest in a busy period of work spanning depots across the country.
Each module had to be threaded into a finished opening on a structure where the steel was already erected and the concrete already poured. Lifts of this type leave no room for adjustment on site: with the surrounding structure complete, tolerances are fixed before the crane arrives, and the unit either goes in clean or it doesn't go in at all.
And that's where we come in.
That places the emphasis firmly on planning. Access routes, ground bearing capacity, outrigger positioning and the full lift plan were assessed, written and signed off well before the crane left the depot, with an appointed person overseeing operations on site throughout.
The modules were delivered to site, with John Sutch Cranes handling positioning and final installation.
Chris Fisher, Manchester Depot Manager at John Sutch Cranes, said:
"A lift like this is won or lost long before anyone connects the hook. Once the building's up around the opening, every dimension is fixed - you can't move the steel and you can't move the slab, so the crane has to do exactly what the plan says it will do, first time.
"We placed a very experience team on the job. Frank Miller has been with John Sutch since the business was formed. We think he was employee number 3.
"We have experts like Frank and in the back office too. That's why our planning starts weeks out. We're looking at ground conditions, access, outrigger positions and the full lift sequence before we commit anything to a date. By the time the unit's in the air, the difficult work is already behind us and the team is simply executing what's been agreed.
"It's been a busy week across the business, with teams out in every corner of the country. Being 25 miles from home in Wales on a job like this is exactly the kind of work we're built for."
The project forms part of John Sutch Cranes' ongoing work in precision plant installation across power plants, energy centres, data halls and process facilities - sectors where mechanical plant is routinely installed into structures at an advanced stage of construction.
Planning a similar lift?
Talk to our team about lift planning and precision plant installation.
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