Equipment hire company, Kennards Lift & Shift  recently invested more than $500,000 in new pneumatic chain hoists, and now has units with capacities of up to 16 tonne available for hire. Eight 10 tonne air chain hoists are among new additions to the existing range of hire equipment available.

Other new equipment includes one tonne, two tonne, three tonne and six tonne pneumatic chain hoists, with lifting heights up to 60 metres.

Six 10 tonne pneumatic chain hoists were recently hired from Kennards Lift & Shift in Brisbane for work on twin tunnels that are part of a large road infrastructure project.

The $4.6 billion combined road and busway in Brisbane’s north includes Airport Link, Northern Busway (Windsor to Kedron) and the Airport Roundabout Upgrade.

Thiess John Holland (TJH), a joint venture between Thiess and John Holland Group were selected as the contractor to design and construct this world class project.

Large TBMs (tunnel boring machines), each measuring roughly 165m long with a cutter head measuring 12.48m in diameter, are being used on Airport Link.

Chris Ashton, project engineer for the tunnel construction, explained that the pneumatic chain hoists were used in the dismantling of temporary concrete segmental tunnel rings, which were built to launch the two 12.48m Dia TBMs.

“The larger segments weighed eight tonne each, with the smaller keystone segments weighing three tonne,” he said.

“In total, there were 42 segments, six of which were keystone segments, to be removed.

“A monorail system, installed by TJH, was used to move the hoists over the respective lifting position for each segment.

“For each segment, two hoists were used with two leg chains so that the segment was lifted with four points of contact.”

Chris said Kennards Lift & Shift provided the pneumatic chain hoists and all other lifting tackle was supplied by TJH.

“We used air hoists where space permitted, and manual hoists in other places,” he said.

“Air hoists are a lot more efficient and easier to use. They are also expensive to buy, so it is better to hire them.”

Chris said Kennards Lift & Shift was chosen as a supplier based on their ability to provide six identical air hoists, price and service.