The largest Potain crane to ever be used in North America, an MD 3200 helps construction group AFDE to complete heavy lifts on the Site C Clean Energy Project. The massive crane was positioned on a custom rail track system that enables it to receive oversized loads and move along the length of the job site.
A Potain MD 3200 MAXI tower crane is helping with the construction of the Site C Clean Energy Project — a third dam and hydroelectric generating station on the Peace River in British Columbia (B.C.), Canada. The massive crane, which is the largest Potain crane to ever be used in North America, is working on the Generating Station and Spillways (GSS) Civil Works portion of Site C. When completed, the dam will be the province’s fourth-largest producer of electricity.
After some research on the market, Aecon-Flatiron-Dragados-EBC Partnership (AFDE), the construction group in charge of the project, acquired the Potain MD 3200 crane specifically for penstock installations on this job. The crane arrived at the job site in February last year and started working in August, after being reconditioned to meet the group’s standards by EnCORE, Manitowoc Cranes – Tower Crane Division.
According to Nathan Johnson, deputy intakes and penstocks manager at AFDE, the company needed a crane with the ability to receive oversized loads, like large steel penstock sections — many of which weigh over 45.4 t (50 USt) — at one location and move them with ease into place. The Potain MD 3200 was erected on the Site C job site with its base attached to a custom rail track system that can move it along the length of the dam worksite, nearly 107 m (350 ft).
“The Potain MD 3200 is the tool we needed to perform the work. The job would have been far more challenging without this crane”, he said. “We are very happy with the MD 3200’s performance — it’s the number one tool on the job site, as it can lift up to eight times more than any other tower crane on site.”
The crane has been affectionately named by some as “Sir Pix-a-Lot.”
“It’s outstanding, it’s definitely part of the skyline. When you’re driving into the site, if you don’t know how big it really is from the horizon, it’s massive,” Johnson said.
Important features on the crane include its 101.1 m (331.7 ft) max height, 85 m (278.9 ft) jib, a capacity of 80 t (88.2USt), and a full-extension lifting capacity of 26 t (28.7USt). To complete lifts up and over the height and length of the dam from a given point, AFDE requested the crane to be designed and configured at 78m (255.8 ft) height, 70 m (229.6 ft) jib, with 64 t (70.5 USt) and a full-extension capacity of 37 t (40.8 USt).
There are seven other Potain tower cranes working on site: two new MD 689 and five MD 560 cranes.
Construction on the Site C project commenced in 2015 and is expected to be completed in 2024. It will provide 1,100 megawatts (MW) of capacity, and produce about 5,100-gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity each year — enough energy to power the equivalent of about 450,000 homes per year in B.C.
