Manchester University needed to remove two redundant boilers from a basement area on their campus. Our customer was working directly for the client, and drafted us in to carry out two aspects of this operation.
Initially we needed to skate the boilers out from their existing positions into an external low-level ‘well’ area. Once they were outside, our Tadano TS-75 crane was then required to lift the boiler out in sections, ready to be disposed of.
The crane was sited on a road adjacent to the ‘well’, and the contractor’s temporary works team instructed us that the ground bearing capacity was incredibly low. Initially we wanted to use a larger crane, and remove the boiler in two pieces (it was physically too large as a whole) however on hearing this news, we decided to cut the boiler into smaller sections, therefore enabling a smaller and lighter crane to be utilized.
A further obstacle to overcome was that the second boiler to be skated out of the basement involved the temporary removal of a heat exchanger that was in use to control the temperature of some classrooms. This meant that this phase had to be carried out over a weekend without delay, as this would cause issues for the students and lecturers.
The program given to us for this job was strictly adhered to, the boilers were removed from a difficult position, and successfully lifted into the skips and removed from site to the clients satisfaction.
