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Mast Climbers Cases

Scanclimber® by Tractel® Mast Climbing Work Platforms are suitable for any kind of facade work, installations, bricklaying and the handling of passengers and materials.

Lahti’s water tower, with its bright new-looking façade, stands tall and gives a spectacular view of the city from the top. The tower’s facade was in real need of renovation and Scanclimber mast climbing work platforms with special extensions were put forward as the best solution for the project.

History

mustakallio water tower

The Mustankallion water tower, Lahti, Finland, used to be the city’s main reservoir. The tower dates from 1963. It is 50 metres high with tank capacity of 1000 cubic metres. In 1990, a panoramic café was opened at the top of the tower, later converted to a sauna and conference room, which offer an amazing view of the city and surroundings. Today, the tower is owned by Lahti Aqua, which is responsible for water services in the city.

Introduction

mustakallio water tower

The reinforced concrete water tower was built with a huge wooden frame and a fibre cement board facade. Fibre cement board was a very common facade material in Finland in the 60’s and 70’s but contained a 20% asbestos content. The tower interior was renovated in 2004 but the exterior was untouched from its construction. Over time, the facade panels became outdated and loose, some even falling off. A total facade renovation was needed. The construction contract was given to Skanska Infra and suitable machines were required. Help came from Hämeen Rakennuskone Oy, a Finnish plant hire company, which has various Scanclimber hoists and mast climbing work platforms in its fleet. The renovation was carried out according to the Finnish National Board of Antiquities and Historical Monuments regulations, which means that the facade look cannot be changed.

Challenges

Considering the structure of the water tower, the renovation project was tricky as it required special machine configurations to access the entire facade. The major project challenges were:

  • Long anchors and platform extensions
  • Huge wooden-framed, cone-shaped facade shell
  • There were no structural drawings available for the tower

With no structural drawings available and to access the huge wooden cone-shaped facade shell, there was a need for some exceptional machine configuration. In order to complete this project, long anchors and platform extensions were needed.

Platform Solutions

mustakallio water tower

mustakallio water tower

Together with Scanclimber experts Hämeen Rakennuskone and Skanska found the best solution. To complete this renovation task, two specially configured Scanclimber SC5000 mast climbing work platforms were selected. The platform configuration included the use of both: Snake platforms (adjustable hinged platform system) and Telescopic extensions (platform side extensions). The goal is to allow the platform to follow the facade contours. Additionally, both of the mast climbers had to be repositioned constantly as the renovation work progressed.

Anchoring

mustakallio water tower

A unique feature in this project was the special anchoring distance and anchoring spacing for the mast climbing platforms. The first anchor was mounted at a height of 23 m where the distance to the tower was 8.5 m. To ensure rigidity, the mast sections of Scanclimber’s material hoist were used for anchoring. In order to reach the top of the facade shell, a long space between the anchors was needed. The second anchor was mounted at the top of the concrete water tank at 45 m. The extra-long space between the anchors obviously required extra strong anchoring parts. The configuration was designed by Scanclimber experts.

Customer Feedback

After project completion, Supervisor Mikael Vuorijärvi from Skanska said:

Even though the mast climbing work platforms had to be moved several times to complete this project, this method was still much cheaper and more efficient than scaffolding.

Project Facts 
MCWP used SC5000
No. of Units Used 2
Height achieved 50 m
Duration of the project
5 months (summer, 2015)
Main use of Scanclimber MCWP's
Replacing old facade plates with new ones
Special features
  • Anchor spacing
  • Anchoring distance
  • Long and wide telescopic extensions