Delivering Four 10.4te Sand Filters to Loughborough with Low Loaders and Two Cranes

Project

Four large vessels moved between two sites in two days

We moved four horizontal sand filter vessels for a client in the water industry, from a storage yard in Pershore to a treatment works in Loughborough. Each vessel weighed 10.4te and measured about 10.1m long, 4.2m wide and 4.35m high.

The challenge

The vessels were too tall for step frame trailers, so they had to travel on low loaders, and their size meant the route went to the police for approval. Low loaders are scarce, and we booked four so that every vessel could travel at once. That kept the crane work to one day at each end.

At Loughborough the vessels had to land side by side next to the site road, on ground with a bearing limit set by the client’s civil engineer.

How we did it

On the first day a 60te all-terrain crane loaded all four vessels onto the low loaders at Pershore. On the second day they were delivered to Loughborough together, and a 110te all-terrain crane lifted each one off its trailer and into position. No police escort was needed in the end.

The 110te crane worked from two positions on the site road, two vessels from each. That kept the radius to 18m without bringing in extra counterweight. Each outrigger sat on three layers of modular mats, built up to bring the ground bearing pressure within the engineer’s limit.

Each vessel was cradled in two 12m endless slings hung from a 4m spreader beam. Test lifts set the sling positions so it lifted level, and it was turned through 90° in the air to land in line with the others.