Winners of the 2024 ESTA Awards

All the 2024 ESTA Awards winners lined up on stage at the event in Paris, France. Photo: ESTA

Following a gala dinner in France on 25 April more than 400 guests waited with bated breath to hear the outcome of the 2024 ESTA Awards of Excellence contest.

Earlier in the year the European Association of Abnormal Road Transport and Mobile Cranes’ jury of experts drew up its shortlist of potential winners from around 70 entries. Following further deliberation, the successful entries in ten categories were announced at the annual ESTA Users’ Night and Awards gala dinner and presentation event. This was at the Hilton Charles De Gaulle Airport hotel to the north of Paris on 25 April.

A maximum of four finalists were shortlisted in each of the ten categories. All the winners of the ESTA Awards 2024 in the ten categories are listed below.

Combined techniques

Allelys

Allelys completed a unique beach landing operation and subsequent challenging road transport of a 155 tonne transformer from Black Rock Sands in North Wales to a substation at Trawsfynydd.

Transport up to 120 tonnes

Heavy Load Service (HLS)

The transport of two gigantic tanks with a diameter of 5.5 metres from Hengelo in the Netherlands to the French village of Golbey, involved 140 kilometres of road transport through rural France and the approval of five electricity companies.

Cranes more than 120 tonnes

Ainscough Crane Hire

For the exchange of a kiln installation during the largest shutdown in the history of the Rugby Cement plant in the UK, Ainscough Crane Hire carried out several complex lifting operations down to the centimetre and completed over a six-day period working 24 hours.

Safety

Liebherr-Werk Nenzing

The engineers at Liebherr-Werk Nenzing have developed an individual mode for crawler crane operation on a floating unit (pontoon, barge) with different load curves, which results in significantly safer lifting operations.

Innovation

BKV

BKV developed the TensionMaster, a tool designed to eliminate the risks of hoist rope damage, shock loading of the crane and potential damage to the lifted object.

Cranes under 120 tonnes

M.J. van Riel

Sixteen cranes were used by Van Riel to move a 352 metre section of heat pipeline during a drilling operation under the busy Erasmusplein in The Hague, Netherlands, a solution that allowed trees and bushes along the route to be spared.

Transport above 120 tonnes

Kahl & Jansen

On its way from Ibbenbüren to Niederaussem in Germany, a 350 tonne generator crossed several bridges with a maximum permitted axle load of 14 tonnes. The transport specialists at Kahl & Jansen used a transport combination of 2 x 26 axle lines and a girder bridge, resulting in a gross combination weight of 798 tonnes.

Cranes, lattice boom

Ainscough Crane Hire

For the upgrade of Liverpool’s Anfield football stadium in the UK, Ainscough removed an existing stand structure using an ingenious tandem lift operation by two crawler cranes.

SPMT

Wagenborg Nedlift

Wagenborg Nedlift transported two large storage tanks from the inland quayside in Urmond in the Netherlands to the Chemelot Geleen industrial estate. going through the village and crossing the Netherlands’ busiest motorway, the A2.

Training

Prangl Gesellschaft

Prangl set up an internal training and development campus called “BePrangl”. Every year, it compiles an updated training manual with all available courses. In 2023 a total of 58 training courses took place at BePrangl with 421 participants.

Congratulations to all this year’s winners and good luck for next time to the runners up.

The 2024 ESTA Awards of Excellence evening event opened by Fabio Belli, the European crane and transport association's president