CITY CRANES Ӏ SECTOR REPORT
NO LIMITS FOR CITY SLICKERS
Inside and out, city cranes are a sector on the rise. Julian Champkin reports.
Cities have very little space. Cities have narrow roads. Cities have tall buildings. City authorities don’t like noise. City authorities don’t like emissions. City authorities don’t like vehicles that block traffic whilst working or even while travelling to their worksite. City authorities, however, still want buildings to be constructed, maintained and repaired. And they want cranes that are able to do those tasks whilst complying with all the above requirements. In short, cities might not want the impossible but they do want an
Ainscough’s
new Liebherr LTC 1350-3.1E city crane...
awful lot! Enter the city crane and its growing significance. To the uninitiated a city crane might look like a smaller, more compact version of an all-terrain. It is compact for a reason: so it can fit into those little spaces. To avoid the perpetual throb of diesel whilst at work city cranes are prime candidates for electric power (now that technology is making this a practical possibility). Electric power, of course, relieves the city of the stench of dirty diesel fumes and the thrum of the diesel engine; hence the design of the modern
City Crane – a concept that is now advancing on all fronts. In our praise of the
adaptiveness of the city crane, however, we’ve neglected to address the ‘tall buildings’ bit – a key feature of city centres. A city crane actually cannot reach the top of a very tall building. For that, of course, you need a tower crane. But tower cranes are expensive to install and operate. They need lots of large lorries to deliver them and they stay on-site for months at a time. For a medium-rise project, or for a job that takes only a day or two (or even a week), to erect a tower crane when you don’t have to would be insane. So the city crane is in demand. And new versions of them are in development and being launched. Liebherr, for example, has its LTC 1350 – 3.1E hybrid, with an elevating cab, which was launched in October last year. The ‘E’ stands for electric. The crane is essentially its 1050-3.1 conventional drive city crane but now with an electric motor attached for lifting. The internal combustion engine is still used for driving to the site but, once on site, the electric motor can be powered by cable from whatever supply is locally available. Like its non-electric parent it is compact – just 2.55 metres
48 CRANES TODAY
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