Wolff towers on a data building exercise

Data is helping maximise crane efficiency on a data centre construction project – a data building exercise, you could say. Photo: Wolffkran

A new data centre under construction in the UK is being built with the help of five Wolff tower cranes.

The Powergate Data Centre in West London is described as being more than a building, “the bringing together of technology, construction excellence, and engineering know how,” Wolffkran reported.

More and more data centres are being built all over the world. They are essential in satisfying demand for digital services.

Andrew Wiggins, operations director (construction) at contractor Mace gave an overview of this project, “We at Mace have been appointed to manage construction of this hyper-scale Data Centre set in West London. The sheer scale of this project reflects the demand for an enhanced digital infrastructure, and we are delighted to have tower crane experts Wolffkran working with us.”

“Having successfully tendered for the project, the team at Wolffkran advised on the placement and specification of the luffing jib cranes needed to meet the site requirements, including working around existing services whilst achieving the desired reach and lift capacity,” Wiggins explained.

At the time of writing the tower cranes were working for ten hours a day, with the expectation that the site would go to 24 hour working. In addition to the cranes, Wolffkran supplied eight crane operators and a pair of co-ordinators.

A network of challenges

The Powergate project is on a large site with a “an intricate and delicate network” of data cables and other services to be left undisturbed.

Of the five cranes on site four have 70 metre jibs and the fifth is close behind with 60 metres. Four of the cranes are on cruciform bases, notably with double the usual ballast at between 140 and 195 tonnes. The extra weight helps maximise stability with the long jiibs.

Commenting on the crane set up Irena Stec, Wolffkran crane supervisor and co-ordinator, said, “We are using five huge, heavy-lifting luffing cranes on the project, capable of lifting 30 tonnes on their tightest radius, reducing to 6 tonnes when fully extended. Co-ordinating those cranes to work in harmony on a site of this scale, while minimising downtime and staying within their lifting capacities, makes it a real challenge.”

Mace uses the 1Guava app and it is also on all the cranes to help manage them on site for the most effective allocation and maximise utilisation. “Through 1Guava, we allocate specific lifts and schedules to each of the crane operators for the various trades at the start of every day” explains Irena Stec. “Part of my role is to ensure the operators are completing those lifts and filling in their logs correctly. But I can also monitor if trades aren’t maximising their lift time and potentially re-allocate the lift time to another user.”