A giant crane has spent its weekend blocking Prince Consort Road, but what is it for you might ask.
The Bessemer Building refurbishment includes the positioning of 6 air conditioning and boiler units on the roof. However, as is often the case at Imperial College, the Royal School of Mines was causing trouble. The only way to get the units to the required location was to lift them over the RSM building.
As any decent Civ Eng student will tell you, lifting heavy things requires cranes; in this case a 1000T Liebherr crane. Assembly of this rather large piece of kit took place during Friday and Saturday and never failed to draw a crowd of interested passing members of the public.
Lifting was due to take place earlier on Saturday than actually happened, with the delay being blamed on locals having ignored the traffic restriction and the roadway starting to give way at one point.
However, the need to complete the work by the end of the weekend is essential, the crane hire alone has cost in the region of £40,000 and closing the road a further £2,000.
All being well, the crane will have gone by Monday and many students may not even notice it had been there, never knowing the effort that was gone to in order to keep the happy residents of the building at a cosy temperature.
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