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Spiders team up for Christmas light spectacular
A spider crane and spiderlifts teamed up and overcame ground pressure and narrow access constraints to install a 700,000 Christmas light spectacular at the Westfield London shopping centre, Shepherd’s Bush.
Lighting specialist, The Lite Fantastic, installed a stunning cascade of 700,000 LED lights around the 32 metre high columns - the first of its scale and design to be attempted in theUK.
The dazzling festive display was completed at night during a tight 3 week schedule. Global singing superstar, Mariah Carey took time out to perform the official switch-on during her recent UK promotional tour.
Installation of the light spectacular was both complex and logistically demanding and relied on spider teamwork.
A 19.5 metre Unic URW-706 mini spider crane, on hire from Coppard Plant Hire, was used to hoist two 23 metre working height Teupen Leo 23GT spiderlifts from The Spiderlift Company to first floor level to work in the atrium space. The company also supplied a 30 metre Leo 30T to supplement access working off the ground floor.
Loadings from the 3 tonne spiderlifts and 6 tonne lift capacity Unic crane had to be approved by Westfield London’s structural engineers. The Leo 23GT platforms had a surface load of less than 1.8 kN per sq metre in set-up and travel model, well within the five kN per square metre surface load limit typically required in shopping centres.
Chris Connolly, director of The Lite Fantastic, said: “The lights for Westfield London are a one-off, bespoke installation, and were very difficult to install in terms of Health and Safety and working in a very new, high specification mall. Lights are usually hung from point to point but this involved wrapping nets around the arms and main columns of the atrium ‘tree’ supports at heights up to 32 metres.”
The Centre had initially considered rope access using abseilers but after seeing the spiderlift’s capability, it realised there was a safer and more efficient solution to the problem.
The 700,000 LED unit display is made up of 144 individual nets, measuring 8 metres by 1 metre, weighing around 12kg each and drawing 88Kw of power.
“We could get access to virtually any part of the first floor level using the combination of two Leo machines on the balcony and the larger unit working from below,” he said. “The Leo 23 also has a compact footprint allowing us to slim the machine set-up for access to one particular tree column on a narrow part of the balcony.”
“We were working intensive shifts between 10pm and 8am, so it is always an advantage to use equipment that makes the job less frustrating and less tiring for the operator. Platform set-ups take time and can tire operators, but we only needed to set up the Leos three times for each tree column where other lifts would probably have taken four or five.”
“We have an outstanding IPAF qualified instructor, Joe Ennis of Access All Areas Ltd, who was able to train up eight of our guys to use the machines very quickly and successfully.”
Coppard’s crane & glass handling manager, John Wilding, said: “The key issues for us were the tight entry width to the job and the ground pressure limitations with the floor being over a basement car park. Once we had surveyed the site together with Spiderlift personnel, we were confident that the Unic URW-706 met all criteria.”
He continued: “We set the crane at the right radius and angle to raise the spiderlift, then simply rotated to clear the glazed panels on the balcony. Coppard Plant Hire supervised the lift from start through to completion and it took just over an hour to lift the two platforms safely onto the atrium floor.”
The URW-706 has a 6 tonne capacity at 3 metres and a hook height of 19.5 metres and is the highest capacity mini-spider crane in the UNIC range. And at just 1600mm wide it is still narrow enough to gain access through a standard double doorway. For added lifting flexibility, the 706 also features an optional 3.1 metre long stowable fly jib, together with an optional searcher hook. Maximum working radius is 18.6 metres and maximum boom length is 19.2 metres and mains electric powering comes as an option.
Fit-out contractors used Teupen Leo spiderlifts for electrical, H&V and other interior work during construction of the £1.7 billion mall. The centre itself regularly hires machines from The Spiderlift Company for maintenance and other ‘at height’ tasks.
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