Capital Equipment News June 2016

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CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS JUNE 2016 12
Johnson Crane Hire
RAISES THE BAR ON SHUTDOWN PROGRAMME
Johnson Crane Hire recently success-
fully completed several routine lifts as
well as a number of heavy lift projects
at a major petrochemical plant during its
annual maintenance shutdown.
This was the first time in 20 years that this
particular plant had tackled a plant upgrade
simultaneously with its annual maintenance
work.
Philip Bailey, of Johnson Crane Hire, says the
company completed the project in the 40
day contract period well within schedule and
without any LTIs being recorded.
A cornerstone of Johnson Crane Hire’s ongo-
ing success with lifting contracts is the ex-
tensive preparation work that goes into every
project, and this is done well before cranes
are deployed to site.
“We started work on the project eight months
prior to arriving on site. This involved inten-
sive studies of the lifting programme, starting
with site inspection through to undertaking
compaction tests to ensure the loading bear-
ing capacity of hard stands and marking the
positioning of all cranes on site,” says Bailey.
Johnson Crane Hire operates an extensive
fleet of cranes and was able to draw from this
fleet to ensure that those machines sent to
site were the most appropriate for the range
of lifting applications that would need to be
undertaken. The larger cranes were mobilised
a week ahead of the programme, and erected
and ready to lift a full day ahead of the lifting
schedule.
Bailey says the onerous nature of the proj-
ect, which included numerous tandem lifts in
many different areas at the same time, saw
the leading South African specialist lifting
contractor deploy a sizeable fleet of cranes
on the contract.
The maintenance aspect of the programme
used 20 smaller cranes that were deployed
at various plants on the industrial complex.
These ranged from the largest, a 120 t unit,
to the smallest, a 30 t machine.
The project component of the contract called
for eight large cranes, ranging from 180 t
units through to a 600 t crawler unit.
These large cranes working on the project
component were tasked with replacing 10
large vessels each weighing between 110 t
and 117 t. Some of these enormous pressure
vessels were 12 m in length with an outside
diameter of 12 m.
The old vessels were lifted out of the plant
using the 600 t crawler crane and Bailey says
the largest lifting radius tackled by this crane
was 42 m. The vessels were placed in the
laydown areas with the assistance of a 330 t
tailing crane.
One of the complicated heavy lifts involved
removing another important plant component,
which due to its shape and size was known
as the 'submarine'. It was cut into three 8 m
sections, each weighing 21 t. A 550 t crane
with a 21 m luffing jib was used for this lift
which called for a massive 45 metre radius.
“This entire project called for detailed plan-
ning and attention to detail in all aspects of
the work undertaken. All components had to
be carefully removed, and new units accu-
rately placed and aligned to avoid any dam-
age to the plant,” says Bailey.
Like all Johnson Crane Hire’s projects, an
impeccable safety track-record was achieved
on this site, and this is particularly noteworthy
as much of the lifting for the maintenance
work called for extensive evening shifts to
ensure the programme was met.
The lifting specialist received much praise for
its stellar performance. As Bailey notes, this is
just one of many successful lifting contracts
that the company has completed over the
years within the petrochemical sector, and
Johnson Crane Hire intends building on this
impressive track record! b
Johnson Crane Hire operates
an extensive fleet of cranes and
was able to draw from this fleet
to ensure that those machines
sent to site were the most
appropriate for the range of
lifting applications that would
need to be undertaken.