As parts of the Hinkley Point C project are completed, the number of tower cranes required onsite has diminished and so 30 crane operators have been given marching orders by management
Hinkley Point C is the UK’s first nuclear power station built for thirty years, built on the Hinkley Point headland on the Bristol Coast in Somerset. The site is the location of former nuclear power plants Hinkley Point A and B.
“It has been a hard two weeks for all concerned,” said one crane operator to reporters.
Hinkley Point C construction managers will support workers ‘through the process’
A spokesperson for main contractor Bylor, a joint venture of Bouygues Travaux Publics and Laing O’Rourke delivering the main civil engineering works, commented on the Hinkley Point C crane operators redundancies: “As work on Hinkley Point C progresses, the needs for plant and skills on the project evolve. The number of workers on site has been changing for years depending on the project phases and the expertise required and we have planned for current phasing.
“As always, we will work with anyone impacted by project phasing to ensure they are supported through the process.”
Big Carl was deployed at Hinkley Point C
Big Carl, a SGC-250, is named after Carl Serens, the founder of the company that made the crane. It runs on 6km of track using 96 wheels, with a maximum capacity to lift 5,000 tonnes using its 52 counterweight containers with 100 tonnes of weight each and is the largest crane in use in the world.
The crane is powered by 12 engines, with a lifting radius of 40m. By the end of the Hinkley Point C project, it will have lifted 700 heavy components.
In October last year, it was used to lift the final steel liner ring into place for Unit 2. The steel rings weigh 423 tonnes, are 11.6 metres tall, and have a diameter of 47 metres.
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