Construction Capability

Heavy Lifting
Operations

Multi-crane coordination, heavy lift planning, structural steel placement, and rigging design for bridge girders, precast elements, and stay cable pylon components.

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Engineering Overview

Heavy lifting in bridge construction involves the planned movement of large structural elements using cranes, gantries, or hydraulic jacking systems. JCY develops lift plans, selects crane configurations, designs rigging arrangements, and coordinates multi-crane tandem lifts for bridge girders, pylon steel sections, and precast concrete elements weighing up to 500 tonnes -- including stay cable bridge pylons in Morocco and rail bridges in Adelaide.

What Heavy Lifting Operations Involve

Every heavy lift on a construction site requires a lift plan that defines the load weight and centre of gravity, the crane configuration and capacity at the required radius, the rigging arrangement including sling angles and attachment points, the load path from pick-up to set-down, and the ground bearing capacity under crane outrigger pads. For lifts exceeding 80% of a crane's rated capacity, or any tandem lift using two or more cranes, a detailed engineered lift plan is required.

Crane selection is driven by the combination of load weight, lift radius, hook height, and site constraints. On bridge projects, cranes often operate adjacent to live traffic, over rail corridors, or in areas with overhead power lines -- each imposing additional restrictions on slew angles, boom lengths, and operational windows. Mobile cranes, crawler cranes, and tower cranes each offer different capacity-radius-mobility trade-offs that must be matched to the specific lift requirements.

Load path analysis traces the force from the lifted element through the rigging, crane structure, outrigger pads, and into the ground. This analysis confirms that every element in the chain -- from the shackle pin to the crane mat to the subgrade -- has adequate capacity for the applied load with the required safety factors.

Lift Plan Development

Load weight verification, centre of gravity calculation, crane capacity assessment at required radius, rigging geometry design, and sequenced lift procedure documentation.

Rigging Design

Selection of slings, shackles, spreader beams, and lifting frames based on load characteristics, attachment point geometry, and sling angle limitations for safe load distribution.

Crane Selection & Coordination

Crane type and configuration selection, tandem lift coordination procedures, ground bearing assessment, and crane pad design for operations on variable subgrade conditions.

Track Record

Heavy Lifting Experience

500T+

Heaviest Lifts

Multi

Crane Tandem Lifts

Pylon

Steel Erection

Rail

Bridge Girders

On the Morocco stay cable bridge projects, JCY coordinated heavy lifts for steel pylon sections weighing several hundred tonnes each. The pylon erection sequence required tandem crane operations with synchronised hoisting, precise angular control during rotation from horizontal to vertical orientation, and immediate temporary bolting before permanent welding could proceed. Each lift was engineered with wind speed limitations, counterweight configurations, and abort procedures.

In Adelaide, heavy lifting operations on the T2T Outer Harbour Rail Bridge involved structural steel girder placement over a live rail corridor. The lift plan incorporated rail possession windows, overhead electrification clearance zones, and coordination with the rail network operator. SuperT beam placements on the T2T and Darlington projects required crane operations adjacent to arterial traffic, with lift plans that accounted for traffic management staging and restricted slew zones.