Sarens strand jacks and know-how come together for a smooth and successful operation.
After years of planning and pandemic delays, Sarens has successfully installed a 925-tonne steel roof for the new GLOBALIA (Air Europa) maintenance hangar at Madrid-Barajas Airport in Spain. As part of this visionary operation, Sarens’ crew used 12 strandjacks to lift the 3D steel roof structure to a height of 25 metres.
This project had been a long time in the making, but the operation, like many others, had been delayed over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. Seeing everything finally come together was a triumph for everyone involved, including key account manager José Mª Martínez Gutiérrez.
“Watching how the roof was smoothly lifted in just a few hours reminded me of how all this began more than ten years ago, when I was first involved in this project,” he said. “Some things take time to be completed, but when you see such an outstanding performance, everything is well worth it.”
Sarens used four 185T and eight 100T strand jacks to lift the structure into place, working from twelve lifting points around the hangar’s external perimeter. This equipment proved ideal for lifting such huge, flexible, and three-dimensional loads–in this case, a roof measuring 140x86x10 metres.
The crew had to be careful to keep all the strand jacks synchronised and moving as one, even as they lifted several different loads per strand jack. The day before the big lift, they conducted a lifting test, bringing the roof just a few centimetres off its temporary supports. This allowed the team to cross-check the theoretical loads and roof deformations with real conditions so they could adapt lifting parameters appropriately.
Although weather conditions delayed the lift a couple of times, the team finally had a good, two-day wind window for the operation. With the right conditions, they successfully guided the roof into place.
All equipment for this operation was delivered from Sarens headquarters via truck, and was at the site within one week. Setting everything up was a careful process that lasted several weeks, as the crew had to install the strand jacks on top of auxiliary lifting structures and towers that had been prepared, and because the equipment was only accessible during certain time windows.
Sarens also had to account for a maximum allowed hook height for the auxiliary cranes, due to flight regulations. The crew used a special assembly method that respected these regulations.
In total, the crew and equipment were on-site from November 2022 through April 2023. Sarens would like to congratulate everyone on seeing this project through to its successful completion!
