A fleet of 16 Grove rough-terrain cranes is right on schedule to complete the construction of over 2,000 villas in a one-year period as part of a new residential development in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The cranes are working 24 hours a day at the $750 million Al Falah development, a new stand-alone community that will eventually house 60,000 UAE nationals.
One of the key challenges at the development is the tight schedule. Gulf Precast Concrete Company, which owns the cranes, has to manufacture and construct five villas each day to complete the 2,069 villas on-time.
Dr. Daniele Pfeffer, COO at Gulf Precast, says meeting the daily target and working in the harsh desert environment have increased the pressure of this project.
“The cranes must deliver regular, reliable service to meet the demands of this immense project,” she says. “The uneven ground and arid land makes things more difficult. But our Grove cranes have proven their abilities — working 12 to 24 hours a day for almost a year. We are on track, and I am confident that we will reach our goal.”
The cranes, 14 Grove RT880Es and two RT760Es, arrived in December 2010. There are 12 based at the 12,500 km2 job site performing general lifting duties, including handling structural elements to build the villas and also installing a 220 km wall surrounding the entire community.
The other four cranes are working at Gulf Precast’s production facilities where they load precast concrete elements onto trucks for transporting to the project site. The loads, both in the yards and on site, weigh up to 11 t.
All of the cranes were purchased new by Gulf Precast through the machinery division of The Kanoo Group, Manitowoc’s dealer for Grove cranes in UAE. Kanoo is also providing all Manitowoc Crane Care parts and maintenance support to the cranes, which has ensured they continue to work as efficiently as possible.
One design feature on the RT880E and RT760E cranes that is proving particularly useful on this project is the inverted outrigger jacks — situated at the top of the outriggers as opposed to at the bottom. The inverted outrigger jacks improve stability and also protect the cylinder rods from the ingress of dirt and sand.
The Grove RT880E is one of the latest additions to Manitowoc’s rough-terrain crane range. The crane features a tilting operator’s cab (up to 20 degrees), 75 t lift capacity and 39 m boom with Grove’s patented Megaform shaping for better strength and rigidity.
Established in 1984, Gulf Precast is the leading precast concrete company in the UAE with seven production plants — five in Abu Dhabi and two in Dubai.
The Al Falah development is part of the Abu Dhabi government’s Emirati Family Housing Program. The whole site will be home to 5,000 villas divided into five landscaped villages. Each village will include retail, leisure, business and service facilities. There will be a number of mosques across the site, together with 15 schools and a hospital. The whole project is being managed by the Al Jaber Group.