21.05.2011

Cranes at the Flower show

The Chelsea Flower Show opens on Tuesday and this year many of the display gardens have required the use of cranes and telehandlers to lift heavy items into place and help with construction.

Given the limited space available the trend is definitely towards mini cranes and compact telehandlers. A typical example is the Homebase Cornish Memories Garden, where a Unic URW-376 spider crane hired from European master dealer GGR has been working.

The crane was used to lift and install nine granite slabs, weighing a tonne each, manoeuvring them into position with millimetre precision to form the water rill. The granite rills, which were extracted and carved at the De Lank Quarry, the last remaining commercial quarry in Cornwall, required careful handling.
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The UNIC 376 prepares to lift one of the stones

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The rills and pool design concept

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The granite rills are finished off

The crane was also on hand to position other stone features, including the semi-circular coping stones surrounding the swimming pool and shallow pond.

GGR chief executive Graeme Riley said: “The smooth controls of the Unic 376 along with its radio remote controls, made it ideal for the intricate arrangement of the nine rill jigsaw pieces that needed to be laid with great precision. The soft, uneven ground surrounding the swimming pool also posed no problem for the crane since it is designed with flexible outrigger positions to cope with lifting on uneven surfaces”.

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show officially opens on Tuesday - 24th May