Giant jacks give lift to tower project

280 tonnes of steel is lifted into place.

A massive pre-fabricated steel section has been lifted into place using a combination of hydraulic jacks and 500t crane.

The 280t section, part of a ‘cut out’ in a mixed use project in Business Bay, was lifted to podium level with a rented 500t mobile crane, but a different approach was needed to get the metal up a further 50 metres to its required position.

To achieve this, a series of hydraulic jacks from heavy list specialist VSL was used to ‘climb’ the section into position. Pressure was put on each corner of the section with a series of jacks, so the whole unit inched its way up over a leisurely 12 hours or so.

After maneuvering the metal in place, the metal, fabricated by local firm Techno Steel, was bolted in place.

VSL operator Peter Lehe explained: “Each jack is capable of lifting 45 tonnes and we used a series of these to get it to the desired height. Luckily, there were no major problems with this lift and we only need to get one other lintel in place.

The metal is part of the mixed-use U-Bora tower and residence, being constructed by Korean firm Bando. The building is a particularly complex shape to engineer, as both the tower and the residence incorporate sweeping, non-geometric curves into their design.

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