Case Studies

Universal Cranes was contracted by Meier House Removals for a house lift in Brisbane’s West End. The project commenced on the 4th of August 2022 and took a total of 2 days to complete. The team had to work around some tricky location obstacles, but with a combination of good weather conditions and detailed planning, the project was completed without any issues.

A lot of planning happened prior to project commencement to ensure the job ran smoothly. The Universal Cranes team coordinated their efforts with Emacen, Meier House Removals, and TCI Traffic Control. Due to flooding in February 2022, the site had to get DCP testing to ensure the ground bearing pressures the road wasn’t washed away or eroded under the asphalt. The flooding pushed the job back a few months and was successfully conducted in August.

Seven semi-loads were required for the transportation of 100t of counterweight, pads and rigging box. Due to a lack of parking on the property and surrounding streets, it was a tight squeeze for the crane and counterweight trailers. We required traffic control for this 2-day operation and sourced the necessary permits and approvals from TMR.

Getting the crane to site in the dolly was another challenge for our team. The house lift was located on Carlow Street, a narrow and steep street running down to the river in West End. With the help of traffic control, we set up along the river to put the crane back in its cradle and drop the dolly. Due to the steep slope, the mobilisation of our Liebherr LTM1350-6.1 required a full semi-trailer of steel plates, crane pads, and timber pads all tied up on sand to achieve even pressure on uneven ground.

We mobilised over five hours on Thursday 4th and were set up and ready Friday morning. Friday was an easy operation getting the boom and rigging ready to lift by 8:00am. By 10:30am the house was lifted into place and the lifting frame was removed and loaded onto Meier house Removals truck. The team had to make some slight adjustments to the timber sties on the day with a few of the stacks blocking the lifting frame. Upon completion, the team then commenced demobilisation and cleared from site.

KEY EQUIPMENT USED

• The Liebherr LTM1350-6.1 crane was used to lift the house with 100t of counterweight added.
  A MAC25-4 was used as a support Franna to place all the pads, bags of sand, steel plates and timber pads to get the crane level on the sloping hill.
• Liebherr LTM1350-6.1 Crane with 100t counterweight
• Franna MAC25-4