The 128-year-old ancient banyan tree is located in Baijiang Village, Shitan Town, Zengcheng District. The original location is in the way of the planned route of the newly built Guangzhou (Xintang)-Shanwei Railway. In order to meet the needs of railway construction, the ancient banyan tree needs to be relocated and protected. The “new home” is within a distance of the “old house” “The straight-line distance is 62 metres.
The task of transplanting and hoisting the full canopy of ancient banyan trees is the first ancient tree migration and protection project undertaken by Guangdong Thermal Power. According to Professor Ye from the School of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Zhongkai College of Agricultural Engineering, this is the full crown transplantation project of an ancient tree with the largest tree diameter in the country.
About the Banyan Tree
Family: Moraceae Ficus
National Ancient Tree Protection Level: Level 3
Tree age: 128 years
Weight: 25 tons
Total migration weight: 365 tons
Appearance: The shape of the tree is tall, with a diameter of 2.8 meters, a crown width of about 29 meters from east to west, and a crown width of about 34 meters from north to south
The challenge
Faced with the new challenging task of transplanting ancient banyan trees, the special hoisting technical team of Guangdong Thermal Power has visited the site many times to conduct investigations, organized professional technicians to repeatedly demonstrate, adopt measures to local conditions, constantly adjust and optimize the construction plan, fully deploy resources and organize construction in a scientific and orderly manner, to ensure that the ancient tree hoisting task is completed on time and with high quality.
Members of Guangdong Thermal Power Group worked together with all operating personnel to tackle difficulties and worked from 7 pm evening of 16th August till 5 am the next day morning to complete the installation of the last wire rope of the hoisting equipment for the smooth migration of ancient trees.
At 1 pm on the 17th Aug, the main hoisting wire rope of the Sany 800-ton crane (looks like SCC8000A) successfully passed the test hoisting at four hoisting points. In order to ensure safety, the hoisting technical team of Guangdong Thermal Power once again carefully observed the state of the old trees, the crawler crane, and the surrounding environment. After making all preparations, ” “Boldly and carefully” slowly hoisted the old trees and moved them to the “new home”, and completed the task of transplanting the full canopy of the old trees safely and efficiently, which was unanimously affirmed by the government departments and the owners.
