Balfour Beatty has shipped in the world’s biggest luffing tower crane all the way from Australia to work on its marine tunnelling works at Hinkley Point, near Burnham-On-Sea.
Balfour Beatty has a £200m contract to construct 9.5km of tunnels for the new Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.
The seven-metre diameter tunnels – some offshore, some under land – are for the power station’s cooling system.
The firm says it has erected a Favelle Favco M2480D tower crane to support this contract. The crane has been supplied by Marr Contractors in Australia.
“While there are larger tower cranes in the world, this one is the world’s largest luffing tower crane. It can lift a maximum of 330 tonnes at 14.5 metres radius and 55 tonnes out to 63.4 metres,” said a spokesman.
“Also on its way to Hinkley this year is the mighty Sarens SGC-250, a 5,000-tonne capacity ring-mounted crane. It can lift 2,000 tonnes at 100 metres radius.”
