Tower sections to a ridgeline site, Far North
Six lattice sections and a headframe flown to a 780 m ridge where the access track had washed out.
PA-2536 · Lamb Range, west of Cairns · 2024-07-14
The constraint
Why this lift needed a helicopter
The service track had two washouts, one 9 m deep, after a monsoon trough.
Rebuilding the track for crane access required earthworks approvals in a World Heritage buffer.
The site carried emergency services traffic and could not stay off air past a fortnight.
The lift
How it was flown
- Load weight
- 760 kg
- Aircraft
- AS350
- Line length
- 40 m
- Crew
- 6
- Exclusion zone
- 50 m
- Lift cycles
- 9
- Loads were staged on a cleared pad at the base of the range, 6.8 km from the summit.
- Sections flew in erection order so the rigging crew never handled a load twice.
- Cloud base was tracked hourly; the day was flown in two windows either side of orographic build-up.
- Headframe went last, bolted up the same afternoon.
The numbers
Time, cost and disruption
- Helicopter time on site
- 3.2 hrs
- Flight time
- 2.4 hrs
- Crane alternative
- Track reinstatement $210,000 + 5 weeks
- Road closures
- 0
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