Radar Airport Tower

This build was a joint venture between Cook Brothers head contractor and Indra Radar technology A.U. The client Airways NZ and Christchurch airport was very much involved in design and requirements they wished to have incorporated after numerous meetings and design reviews. The final design was reached.

VIP structural steel then had all the design and constraints of the build to work into a program. The original radar which only sits 8 metres from the structure was to be kept running as long as possible while construction started. Stipulations of this was no crane boom or EWP was allowed to break a 10-metre ceiling till we had our 6-day shutdown for installation. Then this also came with a 32-metre ceiling due to aircraft movements. Calculations were made in respect of crane reach and position and methodology put in place.

In the 6 days provided, our program target was to reach to the underside of radar platform including staircases, which we achieved. We then fabricated the top platform and radar room on the floor and pre-prepared for the final lift, putting focus on planning and delivering the full tower. We worked out we would need a 160T crane to lift the platform onto the tower due to reach and size of platform.

We used our good partners Titans on this part of the installation who we work with on a regular basis when large lifts are required. The lift was carried out on the planned day and went extremely smoothly. The weight of the lift was 14T including rigging on the crane. We then proceeded to complete all fixings, tensioning and final connections.