Melbourne Water supplies drinking and recycled water, whilst managing the city’s water supply catchments, sewage treatment, rivers, creeks and major drainage systems.
It is conducting an ongoing maintenance programme at one of its major pump stations in the western suburbs. Integral to the project was removal of the cylinder for overhaul at an offsite machine workshop.
DRH provided the engineering contractor with all the required rigging equipment needed to lift and rotate the cylinder out of position. Utilising an SP Wireless Loadshackle and Hand Held Plus, it monitored the weight of the cylinder as it was lifted from the floor of a deep shaft in the centre of the pump station.
The cylinder weighed approximately 23t, while another two, weighing 13t, will be removed at a later date.
Ross Johnson, general manager at DRH, explained that the cylinders are similar to smaller, hydraulic units that one might see under a tip truck or earth moving machine—just much bigger, he said. They open and close the gate (like a valve) in the sewer system.
The contractor utilised a 55t capacity overhead crane that spans the building in addition to a 25t capacity mobile crane; each crane was connected to the load at two pick points.
The overhead crane was rigged with grade 100 (grade 10 in UK) chain slings that connected at either side of one end of the cylinder frame as it was lifted vertically. The mobile crane, meanwhile, rigged with the same type of chain and longer, synthetic slings, lifted from the bottom as it was raised beyond the level of the shaft entrance.
DRH supplied a set of Gunnebo grade 100 alloy steel master links for the main hook of the overhead crane, rigged into a 55t shackle and then the 25t load shackle with the two-leg chain sling.
