1/4 The first steel containment ring weighs 382 tonnes – around the weight of a 747 Jumbo jet
2/4 The final big lift of the year was one of many significant milestones achieved in 2020
3/4 The first steel containment ring is 17m tall and weighs 382 tonnes – around the weight of a 747 Jumbo jet
4/4 The super-crane lifted a total weight of 575 tonnes to install the first of three massive prefabricated steel rings which form the reinforced cylinder around the nuclear reactor.
The world’s largest crane, nicknamed Big Carl, has completed its biggest ever lift at Hinkley Point C.
Early on Thursday morning, when the wind was down, the crane carried out a 575 tonne lift as it installed the first of three massive steel rings at the nuclear power plant. The 17-metre tall and 47-metre wide ring was prefabricated at the Somerset site, and on its own weighs 382 tonnes. Gear used to secure the element took the total lift to 575 tonnes. The ring was placed onto 96 hydraulic jacks that lo
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The super-crane is nicknamed Big Carl and it lifted a 575 ton steel cylinder into place at Hinkley Point today
The crane stands at 656ft tall and is higher than several famous structures, including London s Gherkin tower
It is known as Big Carl, after Carl Sarens, head of the Belgian family business which constructed the crane
Able to carry 5,000 tonnes in a single lift, Big Carl is expected to be at Hinkley Point for the next three years
The world s largest crane completed its biggest ever lift today, hoisting a 575 ton steel cylinder into place at Hinkley Point.
The super-crane, called the SGC-250 but nicknamed Big Carl, lifted the first of three massive steel rings which form a cylinder around the nuclear reactor being built near Bridgwater, Somerset.
As the SGC-90 is ready for its first job, Sotiris Kanaris talked to Sarens’s director of Technical Solutions, Project & Engineering Carl Sarens and R&D engineer Tom Derveaux about the process of developing the new ring crane.
The Sarens Giant Crane (SGC) series was launched in 2011, when the 120,000tm SGC-120 was introduced. Over the past four years, the company has invested heavily in the series, which now comprises four models.
In 2017, Sarens presented the 140,000tm SGC-140, which since its launch has been working at the Tengizchevroil (TCO) project in Kazakhstan. Two years later, the heavy lift specialist introduced an even bigger model, the 250,000tm SGC-250. This model, also known as Big Carl, has been working in the UK for the construction of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant.
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The Romantic poets were hiking bores. But I didn t realise the full extent of this until reading Adam Nicolson s book, The Making Of Poetry, which focuses on the period Coleridge, the Wordsworths and their groupies spent galumphing around the Quantock Hills in Somerset in the 18th century.
These people were avid walkers.
Coleridge, in particular, would think nothing of schlepping 40 miles in a day, fuelled by bread, cheese and brandy.
Vivid flowers scatter a hillside in the Quantocks, a magnificent area in rural Somerset
The view from the Quantock Hills looking towards the Bristol Channel on a beautiful sunny day