A wide range of cranes from Terex Cranes are being used on the challenging heavy lifting operations on the Riyadh Metro project by rental companies involved on the prestigious development, according to the leading cranes manufacturer.

Some of the machines include Demag crawler cranes, Demag all-terrain cranes, and Terex rough-terrain cranes which have been deployed for jobs that include lifting bridge sections, tunnelling machines and material and building of the metro’s stations, Deepak Jain, the company’s senior sales manager based in Saudi Arabia, tells Gulf Construction.

“These cranes have been involved on the project right from the start and are of different capacities depending on the load requirement.  Some of our cranes are still working on some of the large bridge sections of the project,” he adds.

A Demag crane lifts bridge sections.

The Demag all-terrain cranes used on the project are of 100, 160, 250, 500 and 700 tonnes capacity; while the Demag crawler cranes range from 400 to 1,600-tonne capacity.

These cranes were required to handle heavy loads within the tight working sites of Riyadh city, which posed a number of challenges. However, the company’s Demag IC-1 Plus control system, and its features such as asymmetric outrigger positioning, has been put to good use in these circumstances, he points out.

For the Riyadh Metro project, Jain says Terex Cranes has been extending its full support to the rental companies using their machines in working out the lift plan and ground pressure conditions and also supporting them to improve the uptime of the cranes.

Among such companies was lifting solutions specialist Mohammad Abdullah Al Areedh Company which was called upon by the BACS consortium in the early days of the project in 2016 to erect a launching gantry across a busy road for a light rail bridge on the development.

To get the job done, Mohammad Abdullah Al Areedh was hired to raise the 142-tonne beams and supporting winch 16.75 m in the air using two Demag AC 500-2 all-terrain cranes.

The launching gantry lifts required roads to be closed, creating the need for urgency on this part of the massive construction project.

The cranes were configured to a boom length of 37.9 m and outfitted with 180 tonnes of counterweight. Each crane was also equipped with the Demag Sideway Superlift (SSL) telescopic boom attachment.

To secure the beams to the supporting bases, the cranes worked in tandem to lift each beam 16.75 m at a radius of 16 m and 18 m, respectively. The weight of the beams was evenly distributed and each crane was responsible for 71 tonnes. It took the Mohammad Abdullah Al Areedh crew of seven just 10 days to complete the project.

With a carrier length of just 17.1 m, the Demag AC 500-2 crane is the most compact eight-axle crane in its class, says a spokesman for Terex. It has an impressive system length of 145.8 m through the use of the unit’s luffing fly jib.

The crane offers enormous power across the full lifting capacity range because of the design of the main boom cross-section and the reinforced SSL. Short set-up times and the IC-1 control system’s ease of use make for smooth crane operations and comfortable working conditions. The drive design of the crane provides outstanding transfer of engine power, yielding excellent performance on both the highway and the jobsite, the spokesman adds.

Terex Cranes says it provides its customers sales, service and training services and helps them grow their business and ensure the best return on investment.