Comansa tower cranes worked on the construction of a cable-stayed bridge that joins together Cebu City and Mactan Island in the Philippines.
Two Comansa 21LC660 tower cranes worked on the construction of the cable-stayed bridge that now joins Cebu City and Mactan Island in the Philippines – a location that had a variety of logistical challenges.
Comansa tower cranes ensure that even the most complex bridge construction projects are a resounding success. On this occasion, thanks to the tower crane manufacturer’s vast experience and the commitment of its technical team, the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway bridge was built on time and is now operational.
Two Comansa 21LC660 tower cranes (36-tonne version) were used to build the bridge linking Cebu City, the second largest city in the country, and Mactan Island, where the international airport that serves the city is located,
This is a significant structure that helps to alleviate the heavy traffic that was experienced on two older bridges.
Thanks to this new bridge, the journey time has been reduced by up to 40 minutes. This is helping to streamline commercial and industrial travel and facilitate the transportation of tourists landing at the international airport of Mactan, which is the main tourist hub of the country.
This is a key project for the region, awarded by Cebu Cordova Link Expressway Corporation, a subsidiary Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation, to Cebu Link Joint Venture (CLJV), a joint venture between Acciona, First Balfour and DMCI.
In order to meet the specific requirements of the project, two Comansa 21LC660 flat-top cranes from the 2100 series were selected.
These are the perfect choice for maximum performance in projects involving particularly heavy loads, such as bridge construction. Furthermore, the use of 80-metre long booms made it possible to provide a wide and accessible perimeter on-site surrounding the two main pylons on which the bridge was built.
Modular system, the key to simple assembly
The project was divided into three sections: the Cordova viaduct and causeway; the cable-stayed bridge; and the access viaducts on the Cebu City side.
Comansa’s tower cranes were used to construct the main cable-stayed bridge that spans approximately 650m and is supported by two 150m-high towers.
• Tower 1 is located a distance from the coast and is not accessible by land, so the tower crane had to be erected using a crawler crane mounted on a boat.
• Tower 2 is also far from the coast, but in this case a temporary island/dock was made using fill material, allowing materials to be delivered and thus enabling the bridge to be built. The tower crane was erected using a crawler crane from this provisional island.
The modular system used by Comansa, with its compact pieces, played a fundamental role in this project by allowing the tower cranes to be erected in such complicated circumstances.
Versatility of tower cranes
The tower cranes were used for a variety of purposes:
Lifting heavy equipment to the deck during the construction phase, such as mobile cranes, boom trucks, and concrete pumps weighing up to 32t.
• During concreting operations, in order to lift 5 cubic metre concrete buckets (weighing approximately 12t) from the pile cap to the deck and moving them in a 40m working radius, in order to feed the static pumps used for delivering concrete to the segment being executed.
• Lifting and placing pylon formwork, prefabricated pylon rebar cages (approximately 8t), lifting of rebar bundles for structural works, lifting of anchor boxes and installation of the stay cables, among other daily activities carried out during bridge construction.
The ability to automatically change reeving, combined with the Power Lift system, allowed the cranes to easily adapt to a wide range of loading manoeuvres, handling different volumes and weights and taking full advantage of the cranes at all times.
Comansa, ‘come hell or high water’
Given the bridge’s location in a country that is affected by typhoons during the rainy season, the tower cranes were designed to support winds of up to 250km/h.
In addition, due to their height and the proximity to Mactan-Cebu Airport, both the cranes and the booms were fitted with safety lights in compliance with civil aviation regulations.
Both tower cranes were struck by lightning during the construction work, but thanks to their lightning protection, the operators were unharmed and the tower cranes were able to continue working after undergoing mechanical and electrical checks (assisted by the Comansa technical team through their online support).
Ease of assembly, versatility, efficiency, and technical assistance are just a few of the aspects that ensured that the constructor finished