September 18 - Enerpac claims to have tested the world's largest gantry crane at its Hengelo manufacturing facility in the Netherlands.
The overhead travel crane (OHTC) will be used to build a 5.4 km bridge for an offshore highway on Reunion Island. The crane is composed of two pairs of lifting beams with an overall width of 30 m and a lifting capacity of 4,800 tonnes.
The OHTC will be used on a jack-up barge currently under construction in Poland; the combination will be used to lift, move and lower concrete blocks for the offshore highway.
Lifting and lowering is achieved using a reeved winch system, based on eight grooved drum winches. Longitudinal travelling of the gantry uses a trolley arrangement comprising two trolleys per lifting beam, propelled with hydraulic drive motors and planetary gearboxes.
Testing of the OHTC has been conducted on one of the pairs of beams, which included: lifting 1,100-tonne blocks; synchronised lifting of the block with a hook from each beam; and checking the crane's positioning accuracy to 1 mm.
HLPFI reported on May 14, 2015 that a French consortium of Bouygues Travaux Publics, VINCI Construction and Demathieu Bard Construction, awarded Enerpac the contract to build the giant gantry crane.
