Sarens serves clients worldwide with the right equipment for any job, whether it’s for a one-day lift or more complex operations like the metro station construction project headed by MinskMetroStroy. When they needed equipment to dismantle a tunnel boring machine that had been carving out a new metro station in the centre of Minsk, Belarus, they looked to Sarens for the solution.

Sarens presented the client with a Grove GMK6300L crane with full ballast, which was brought on site for about six weeks, conducting project work between November 22, 2019 and January 10, 2020.

Sarens had chosen the crane because it could manoeuvre in cramped conditions and confined spaces, but could also safely lift the 110-tonne bearing. It was transported to the project site via five trailers, and it took the crew two hours to set up the equipment.

During the operation, two cranes were used to lift the bearing, which measured two metres high with a diameter of six metres. The Grove GMK6300L moved several times during the operation, as the two crane operators worked to disassemble and load out the tunnel boring machine. The main difficulty was the limited pit access they had, due to spacers, limited visibility, and the asymmetric centre of gravity of the loads. Responding to this unique set of challenges, the crane operators had to set different sling lengths for every load.

“This project is very interesting and extremely important for the development of the infrastructure of the capital of our country,” said crane operator Denis Polegoshko.

Sarens is pleased to have helped MinskMetroStroy with this important project, and congratulates our client for their work on the Minsk City Metro.