In partnership with Mirvac, Australia-based Marr Contracting has removed the top section of the TCN-9 TX transmission tower in Sydney, Australia.
Preparatory works begun earlier this year, as HLPFI reported here. The international team tasked with dismantling the 233 m-high tower also includes engineering consultant Robert Bird Group and infrastructure specialist Kordia Solutions.
Simon Marr, managing director of Marr Contracting, explained that the company came up with a solution using its tower cranes and bespoke equipment as an alternative to more traditional methods of deconstruction. The approach involved the introduction of guy wires to laterally support the tower crane and allow it to climb to the required height to dismantle the tower.
“As lateral supports were not an option, the challenge from a craneage point-of-view was to find a way to get the crane hook height above 233 m without the need to build expensive and complicated temporary structures to support the crane,” Marr explained.
In the coming nine months, two of Marr’s cranes – including an M310D – will continue to dismantle the tower piece by piece.
After completing the lighter lifts at maximum height, the crane will climb down to a freestanding height of approximately 90 m. Marr’s team will then replace the M310D with an M1280D heavy lift luffer (HLL), which will remove the heavier modules of the tower weighing up to 60 tonnes.
The dismantling of the tower is slated for completion by early 2022.
