Klimatec’s projects team completed second phase crane lift for client in south London
Klimatec’s projects team, led by Head of Projects Callum Small, completed the second phase of its chiller replacement project for a major client in London.
The projects team has been busy swapping out end of life chillers with ultra tight tolerances leaving no room for error. In the second part of the four-phase project, the team worked over the last weekend of January to remove two of the 15-year-old McQuay chillers and replaced them with two new Trane air cooled RTAF385s.
The break in the wet weather ensured a smooth crane lift for phase two of the works
Baldwins Heavy Cranes were contracted to bring in their LTM1650, selected because of its ability to lift the 12.9-ton load on a long reach. No small feat as the 650-tonne crane, with a 175-tonnes of counterweight on 42m of luffer, required its own 100-ton crane to build in location. It took 11 and a half hours to fully rig the night before in preparation for a full weekend of lifting.
The Klimatec team, comprising of Callum, Supervisor Chris Todman, Supervisor Glen McManus, Service Delivery Manager Tom Humphries and Operations Director Ben Johnston, started the long process of removing the old equipment at first light on the Saturday morning before they could install the new chillers.
It was a hard weekend for the team, but everyone onsite on the Saturday was treated to a BBQ lunch to help keep morale and energy high into the afternoon. It was needed - the old McQuay chillers were a whopping 12.5m and 12.9 tonnes respectively while the new additions were 12.4m and 11.34 tonnes!
The team returned for phase three two weeks ago where the weather took a turn for the worse on the Sunday with torrential rain. Despite being soaked, the team – Ash, Glen, James, Tom and Ben – carried on with the works, this time taking out the two old McQuay chillers and replacing them with two Trane RTAF300 chillers.
Despite the chillers being smaller and the crane being a lot closer to the compound, this became a very complex lift. The original steelwork that was built around the chillers was installed poorly 15 years ago and this couldn’t be identified until it was fully stripped back. Once the chillers were in the air it became obvious that there wasn't an inch to play with.
As Ben described;
“To say the paintwork on the old chillers got scratched is an understatement!”
Fortunately the new chillers were 20mm narrower once the lifting eyes were removed and with a quick field modification to the rigging arrangements the chiller was lowered in scratch free.
“The team as always did Klimatec proud, showcasing our high standard of work, tenacity, and skill. Many thanks to each and every one of the team who was involved behind the scenes and during the crane lifts.””