ON THE GROUND
UPFRONT ENGINEERING
SAVES TIME AND MONEY
By Tarren Bolton | All images by Johnson Crane Hire
Heavy lifting capacity of modern mobile cranes is revolutionising industrial project roll-out, with
complete structures now being moved and lifted.
G
aining full benefit from this
trend, however, needs careful
and early planning, warns
Johnson Crane Hire National
Sales Executive, Peter Yaman.
“Taking advantage of today’s
advanced lifting and moving
technology needs a thorough
assessment of lifting options, and
this needs to be done as early in the
project life cycle as possible,” says
Yaman. “For this reason, Johnson
Crane Hire offers customers our
‘upfront engineering’ service to fully
explore which solution will be safest,
quickest and most cost effective for the
specific project.”
He notes that South Africa did not
historically have much capacity to
deal with abnormally wide, high or
heavy items and many of the country’s
road routes were not conducive to
transporting them.
22
JUNE 2019
“Our whole construction methodology
was therefore aimed at much smaller
components, which could be more
easily transported, and then lifted by
smaller cranes,” he says.
“The downside, of course, is that the
‘stick-build’ required on site brought
a range of risks and costs. Working
at height is always hazardous and
assembly on site generally takes much
longer than in a purpose-designed
manufacturing facility.”
Yaman notes that it is usually
preferable to build an engineered
structure or component in a factory
environment where manufacturing
conditions are more controlled. Here,
there are better quality controls, and
testing can be conducted before the
item leaves the facility for site.
“This is generally a lower-risk option
than fabricating the item on site,
especially where factors like adverse
www.plantonline.co.za