Battersea Power Station
Innovation Winner: Increasing safety while increasing speed, lifting awkward loads into a basement.
Contractor
Vital Energi
Location
Battersea Power Station, London
Challenge
Vital Energi are working as the principal contractor to provide mechanical and electrical (M&E) services at the Battersea Power Station development, this includes providing the water and heating supply to the power station and surrounding development.
A lot of materials and equipment associated with M&E are very heavy and awkward, sometimes known in the lifting community as ‘oversized’. This often means that loads are lifting with slings, which can catch or snag on buildings or scaffolding when being lifted. Alternatively, multiple pieces of lifting equipment can be used, depending on the equipment that is being lifted, but this means creating a new lift plan for every different lift and can be time consuming and costly.
On this project, we worked with Peter Reid, who is the Lifting Operations Manager for Vital Energi. He wanted a solution that allowed them to transport large and awkward loads safely and efficiently from the delivery vehicle, into the shaft down to the energy centre, which is below ground.
Solution
In collaboration with the site team, our designers came up with a large goods lifting cage, which was designed to manage the awkward loads up to 4 or 5 tonnes. It enabled materials to be transported from the delivery vehicle, into the cage and straight down the shaft.
Other Key Features:
- 4-point lift.
- 5000kg capacity.
- Area to load of 4 metres by 3 metres.
- Large access gates to ensure access to all available areas within the cage.
- Double security measure on the gate.
- The gates were fitted with wheels, to enable them to be easily opened and closed by one site operative, this allowed one slinger/signaller to carry out the whole operation.
- Solid sides, so any type of material could be lifted without risk of it falling out.
The goods cage reduced the number of lifts which meant that the team required less crane time. It also meant that no site operatives needed to get up into the back of the truck to sling or choke items for lifting, they could be loaded directly into the cage with the forklift.
Feedback
Peter Reid won an innovation award from partner contractor Mace for working with Conquip to develop a cage that improved safety and efficiency on the project.
"The cage is a safer method because you don’t have to get people up in the back of the truck anymore, which has eliminated the working at heights. It has also speeded up the programme of the project as you can get a lot more items dropped down in one lift."
Peter Reid, Lifting Operations Manager, Vital Energi