ESTA Awards winners revealed in Paris

In total, there were 37 finalists across the 10 categories from 12 different countries.

For the combined techniques category, the award went to Allelys, which completed a beach landing operation and subsequent road transport of a 155-tonne transformer from Black Rock Sands in North Wales to a substation at Trawsfynydd.

Heavy Load Services (HLS) took home the trophy for the transport up to 120 tonnes (gross combination weight) category. It moved two tanks with a diameter of 5.5 m from Hengelo in the Netherlands to the French village of Golbey.

Ainscough Crane Hire was victorious in the telescopic crane over 120-tonne capacity category for its work on the exchange of a kiln installation during the largest shutdown in the history of the Rugby Cement plant in the UK.

For the safety award, Liebherr-Werk Nenzing took home the trophy for the development of an individual mode for crawler crane operation on a floating unit (pontoon, barge) with different load curves, which results in significantly safer lifting operations.

BKV landed the innovation award for the development of the TensionMaster – a tool that is designed to eliminate the risks of hoist rope damage, shock loading of the crane and potential damage to the lifted object.

For the telescopic cranes under 120-tonne capacity category, M J Van Riel took home the trophy. The company used 16 cranes to move a 352 m section of heat pipeline during a drilling operation under the busy Erasmusplein in The Hague, a solution that allowed trees and bushes along the route to be spared.

Kahl & Jensen won the transport over 120 tonnes category for its role in moving a 350-tonne generator from Ibbenbüren to Niederaussem in Germany, crossing over several bridges with a maximum permitted axle load of 14 tonnes. It used a transport combination of 2 x 26 axle lines and a girder bridge, resulting in a gross combination weight of 798 tonnes.

Ainscough won the cranes, lattice boom category for its work on the upgrade of Liverpool’s Anfield football stadium in the UK, where it removed an existing stand structure using a tandem lift operation by two crawler cranes.

For the SPMT category, Wagenborg Nedlift’s transport of two storage tanks from the inland quayside in Urmond in the Netherlands to the Chemelot Geleen industrial estate was victorious.

Lastly, the training award went to Prangl, which set up an internal training and development campus called “BePrangl”. Every year, it compiles an updated training manual with all available courses. In 2023, a total of 58 training courses took place at BePrangl with 421 participants.