Festival gets a big lift

Over the past 30 years, the Reading Festival has become somewhat of a tradition on the UK music scene. Drawing thousands of rock fans from around the country and abroad, the festival takes place each year well-away from the city, on a vast area of isolated farmland.

King Lifting carried out the challenging task of assembling, lifting and placing a 23-tonne, 5-section, 40-metre long temporary steel footbridge at this rural location using its Terex AC 350/6, AC 40/2L and AC 60/3L all terrain cranes. The company also dismantled the bridge following the three-day event.

"At King Lifting we operate a fleet of over 100 cranes of which 54 are Terex models. Last year's purchase of an AC 350/6 has proved to be a great bonus to our business. Its compact dimensions and powerful lifting capacity are suited to a broad field of applications, particularly when it comes to lifting heavy loads in tight spaces," says Tristan King, commercial director, King Lifting Ltd.

Arriving directly from King Lifting's West London depot, the three cranes, and the support vehicles carrying the separate bridge sections, were easily driven off the main road, across the fields via a pre-laid 500-metre track, and down to the riverbank where the bridge was to be erected. A concrete-based area cast with steel cross-sections provided a sturdy support for the cranes' outrigger jacks supporting the heavy load during the seven-day job.

The first six days were dedicated to assembly using the AC 40/2L and AC 60/3L. The cranes' excellent mobility, short telescoping times and easy-to-operate counterweight unloading system played an essential role in carrying the bridge's individual 5-tonne sections and placing them in precisely the required position, and securing the sections together one by one according to schedule.

By day seven, the bridge was fully assembled to its final 40-metre span, and the AC 350/6 was configured using 116.6-tonne counterweight and 54.2-meter main boom with Superlift attachment at 28-meter radius, ready to lift the 23-tonne steel footbridge into position across the river.

The AC 350/6 provided the perfect solution as Tristan explains, "Trees are part of the charm of the British countryside and a major cause of obstruction in our job. Working up close to the riverbank with such a 
wide-spreading load was also a very challenging situation. The short turning radius of the AC 350/6's 6-axle carrier and IC-1 controls provided the precision we needed to access and manoeuvre comfortably and safely under such a heavy weight in a very restricted area. We completed the job at night under floodlights," says King.

King Lifting's purchase of an AC 350/6 last year has recently been followed by the acquisition of another seven Terex cranes, including three AC 60/3L plus four AC 40/2L all terrain models which feature a market-leading 37.4-meter main boom.