Stacked with strands

Construction of a new terminal for London's Heathrow Airport has been one of the UK's most high profile construction projects over the last year. Fagioli PSC was appointed lifting and transportation contractor by Watson Steel and was responsible for the erection of the new VCR Tower.

The 900 tonne conical top section of the tower was transported 2 km across a field to the site on three remote controlled six-axle self propelled modular transporters (SPMT).

Then, at the end of February, Fagioli PSC used three triangular 16 m towers and three L600 strand jacks to lift the top section 12 m, to allow tower segments to be installed, a process repeated until a final height of 87 m was achieved.

To stabilise the tower, Fagioli PSC supplied six L180 strand jacks in tension frames, three of which were simultaneously tensioned through the lifting jack control system software.