Johnson Arabia (JA) was contracted by the Dubai Electricity & Water Authority recently to lift three 68t transformers to a height of 15m for a substation in the Al Khawaneej area. Mohammed Fareed Nasser, executive manager, Cranes Division, JA, says the biggest challenge in the job was the lack of space on site for the crane outriggers, and the JA engineers had to come up with an ingenious solution. The job was assigned to a Liebherr LTM 1400 all-terrain crane due to its relatively compact design and manoeuvrability. Its active rear wheel steering enables constricted turns, which was a prime challenge at this site. Space limitations also created restrictions for placing the crane outriggers, so engineers added propping support on the manholes nearby to position the outriggers. Also, the counterweights were adjusted to reduce ballast radius to 5.6m to tackle the job in the confined space. “Our team performed extraordinarily on this challenging job. The crane was set up to lift 68t for each transformer with restrictions of 80% in safety utilisation of the crane load charts,” Nasser says. The crane was positioned in two different areas over two days to perform the three lifts safely. Calculations for the repositi