The Iconsiam mixed-use development in Thailand is currently under construction next to the Chao Phraya River, which runs through the city of Bangkok. The project is being developed by a joint venture between Siam Piwat group, Magnolia Quality Development and Charoen Pokphand Group. It is expected to open this year.
Two residential towers are among the highlights of the project. With 52 floors and almost 269 m in height, ‘The Residences at Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok’ will be the shortest of the two. The other tower, ‘Magnolias Waterfront Residences’, is set to become the tallest building in Thailand, thanks to its 70 floors and the pinnacle that crowns it. Reaching 318 m in height, it will surpass the MahaNakhon tower, which is currently the tallest in Thailand at 314 m high. Main contractor on the Iconsiam project is Italian-Thai Development PLC (ITD).
To complete the residential towers, ITD counted on two luffing-jib cranes from Linden Comansa, the LCL165 and LCL190. They were supplied by Linden Comansa’s Thai distributor, Smart (1994) Co Ltd, which also carries out maintenance and services of the cranes.
The LCL165 is working on top of The Residences at Mandarin Oriental with a maximum load capacity of 8 t. The crane was assembled with the internal climbing system and because of this, it is braced to the internal structure of the building and can be climbed easily and safely as the building grows in height.
The LCL165 is also said to be cost saving since it only needs six tower sections, compared to 50 sections that would have been required if it was erected externally. The crane is currently finishing the installation of the crown’s cladding and will be disassembled soon.
The Linden Comansa LCL190, with a 12-t maximum load capacity, was used at the Magnolias Waterfront Residences from January 2016 to May 2018. This crane was assembled with the external climbing system, with a final tower height of 287 m.
In order to lift and move the loads to such heights without any problems, the LCL165 and LCL190 were fitted with optional hoist cable drums, with a capacity for 1,000 and 1,280 m respectively.
The construction of both towers has been a challenge for ITD due to the project’s tight deadline: only 38 months from the first foundation work to the delivery to the client. This pace of work has not only required the cranes to operate for almost 20 hours a day, but also that they do so at high speeds. Therefore, the cranes were equipped with optional high-speed hoisting motors, which greatly shorten the work cycles.
The LCL190 was able to reach speeds of up to 303 m/min and the LCL165 was 310 m/min. As a result, the Magnolias Waterfront Residences could achieve a growth rate of one floor every four days, equivalent to seven floors each month.
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