23.08.2023

Potain quartet for highest bridge

Indian contractor Afcons Infrastructure purchased four 20 tonne Potain MCT 385 flat top tower cranes for work on what will be India’s tallest cable stayed road bridge.

Afcons is the main contractor for the bridge build project which forms a key element of the Khopoli-Kusgaon Connector Project - more commonly known as the ‘Pune-Mumbai Missing Link’.

The four MCT 385 cranes arrived on site a couple of years ago, the complete superstructures/slewing sections were delivered in seven truckloads, which helped with the challenges of reaching the remote jobsite by narrow winding roads. Each crane was assembled on the valley floor, to a starting height of 60 metres, before being climbed to their final working height of 181 metres.
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The Potain MCT 385

All four cranes were rigged from the start with 50 metre jibs capable of handling loads of up to 6.4 tonnes at their jib tips. The 20 tonne maximum capacity can be lifted at up to a 17 metre radius. The Potain MCT 385 can be rigged with jib lengths of up to 75 metres with a jib tip capacity of 2.7 tonnes.
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Getting to site involved travel on some very poor roads

The cranes are working on a 13.3 kilometre link that will provide a straighter, safer road by bypassing the hairpin turns and areas of landslide risk in the Khandala Ghat area. The Chenab Bridge itself is 1,315 metres long, 359 metres high and uses 25,000 tonnes of steel making it the world’s highest single arch bridge. Several world records have also been broken including widest twin tunnels which span 47 metres over 10 lanes. The two tunnels are separated by a 650 metre gap in the Tiger Valley.
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Giridhar Rajagopalan, deputy managing director of Afocns said: “One of the main challenges was access to the bridge location to transport construction materials and equipment. The Seismic activity which is of a very high nature in these areas was another challenge."
As a result, the bridge has been designed to withstand an earthquake of up to eight on the Richter scale.