Linden Comansa Builds Quebec Hospitals
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June 18, 2014 - Canada's Quebec province has set forth an ambitious plan to redevelop and modernize its healthcare system, establishing a public-private partnership with two universities to build Canada’s two biggest hospitals.
For both projects, seven flat-top tower cranes from Linden Comansa were used. All cranes are provided from distributor Linden-Comansa Canada (Location Comansa), who has rented them to sister company Alliance Formwork, which is the main formwork contractor for these projects.
One of the two major hospital networks in Montreal is the University of Montreal Hospital Centre (Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal, known by its acronym CHUM). Construction started on the hospital in 2011 and is planned to be Canada’s biggest hospital construction. When it opens in 2016, its 268,000 sq. m. will include 772 individual rooms, 26 hospitalization units, and 39 surgery rooms, among other facilities. Construction on its library, amphitheater, and clinical administration building will wrap up in 2020.
Four Linden Comansa tower cranes, each with a maximum load capacity of 18 tonnes, are working on the project. Two of them, a 21LC550 and a 21LC210, have been externally climbed with the hydraulic jacking cage to reach heights of 151 and 140 meters, respectively.
The other two cranes, a 21LC290 and a 21LC210, used Linden Comansa’s internal climbing system, which had never been used in North America before. "Both cranes have been jacked up from an initial height of 69.3 meters to a final height of 137 meters. It was the first time we used the internal climbing system and I am impressed. The jacking-up worked very well and the learning curve was short due to the facility of its operation", said Carl DiChiara, Eng. Project manager for Alliance Formwork.
According to Simon Drolet, Eng. tower crane Engineer for Linden-Comansa Canada (Location Comansa): “The new CHUM is a very challenging project due to the height of the construction. We had to climb each of the four cranes five times to reach the final heights. The strategic location of the 21LC550 on the site has been a great advantage for the erection and future dismantling of the other three cranes. The use of the 21LC550 for these tasks saves costs of auxiliary cranes, and helps to minimize the fully closing of the roads that surround the site".
The University of Montreal is also building a new building at the city’s Sainte-Justine children's Hospital. This seven-story building will house a new research center and new facilities for intensive care, surgery, 14 surgery rooms, a neonatology unit, etc.
Currently working on its construction are two tower cranes, a 21LC400 and a 21LC290, although there were three Linden Comansa cranes on the project previously. A 21LC210 has been dismantled recently by the 21LC400, which was used for the erection of the 21LC290 as well. The main work of the cranes, all of them with maximum load of 18 tons, is to hoist pieces of formwork and assist in concrete work.
According to Simon Houle, eng. project management director for Alliance Formwork, "The use of Flat-Top tower cranes allowed to limit the total height of all cranes, thus increasing the security of the entire project providing better visibility of the jobsite to the crane operators, and saving a huge amount of money in installation and dismantling."
