A Comansa Jie tower crane in the pool

Luxury hotel "The Royal Garden" in Hong Kong is located in Kowloon, an urban and modern district with one of the highest densities of population of the world. This 5-star hotel is a haven of peace in a full-of-life atmosphere, with narrow streets crowded of people and traffic.

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It is precisely this environment which meant a great challenge for the company Teamfield Building Contractors Limited, responsible for the extension works of the hotel, which will grow from the current 12 floors to 15 floors by the end of the year. Due to the requirements of the project, it was necessary to have a tower crane on the roof, but the height of the building and the narrow streets surrounding the hotel were quite an impediment to erect it.

At this point, the work of Linden Comansa’s official distributor in Hong Kong, Proficiency Equipment Limited, was essential in order to move in the right direction. Proficiency Equipment worked closely with Teamfield to understand their needs, evaluate the difficulties of the environment and come up with the solution to all the problems.

On the one hand, Proficiency Equipment supplied to Teamfield a 10CJ140 tower crane from of Comansa Jie, Chinese subsidiary of Linden Comansa. Its modular and lightweight sections and components ensured a quick and easy erection, and by its technical features (maximum load of 8 tons), the crane was the ideal for the work on the roof of the "Royal Garden" hotel, whose business will remain running during the entire construction progress.

And on the other hand, their experience in lifting jobs allowed Proficiency Equipment to devise a crane assembly system that was economically viable and that could follow a planned sequence to the millimeter, as due to problems with noise and traffic, they could only work from Monday to Friday from 10 am to 4 pm.

For the erection of the tower crane, two derrick cranes with 1 and 5 tons of maximum load capacity respectively were mounted on the roof. These two cranes were used to lift, from the side of the building, the components of a 16 ton roof crane, which once assembled, served to erect the Comansa Jie 10CJ140 tower crane.

The tower crane was required to sit over the roof without any hole drilling on the permanent structure. Therefore, a 6 meter folding cross base was placed inside the rooftop pool, saving a 1.27 meter drop in the swimming pool by using support pieces and leveling the base using the height-adjustable pyramids. When a few tower sections were assembled, a hydraulic jacking cage was added to the tower, and finally the different sections of the rotating part were added.

For all these tasks, from the assembly of the first derrick to the erection of the Comansa Jie 10CJ140 tower crane, it only took 28 days, thus meeting the deadlines set during the planning. According to Paul H H Hung, Operation and Marketing Manager of Proficiency Equipment, this assembly has brought about interesting lessons: "Teamwork between all stakeholders has been fundamental to come up with the best solution. In addition, we have had to negotiate with the authorities and managed a very tight plan. The experience has been a little stressful but very satisfactory for all parties".