Sarens recently deployed a 750-tonne crawler crane to perform a lifting operation for the ballroom trusses of the brand new Four Seasons hotel in Jeddah. The heavy-lift specialist had been appointed by the Al-Hashemiah Contracting Company to complete the lifts at Saudi Arabia’s latest luxury hotel development.
Manoeuvring the 750-tonne LR1750 crawler crane around the congested project site, Sarens successfully installed trusses weighing up to 63.5 tonnes at heights ranging from 30 to 90 metres. Lifts were performed using four lifting points without a spreader, with the crane slewing and crawling in SLDB 119m and SWDB 77m main boom as well as a 70m flyjib configuration.
A total of 35 trailers drove the crane across 1400 kilometres of road comprising a five-day journey that required special permits from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Six crew members then assembled – and later disassembled – the crane, which remained on site for six weeks.
As the soon-to-be luxury property is positioned near the sea, high wind speeds were a concern during crane operation while the two-person Sarens team also had to contend with a worksite located in a busy residential area. To perform each lift, the crane had to park in the middle of the road, which required road closure permits from assembly through full disassembly.
According to Sarens Project Engineer, Shuaib Kadhem, “The site was very congested for a big crane like the LR1750, so the team had to communicate closely throughout the entire operation. The challenging part was the rigging arrangement: we had four lifting points with an eccentric centre of gravity, which meant the use of a spreader was not an option. Despite installations as high as 90 metres, we lifted all the loads safely and proved once again that at the end of the day, there is nothing too heavy and nothing too high.”
