Ainscough’s Anfield assistance achieves Lifting Operations Award

Ainscough Crane Hire, alongside MGF, has won the Lifting Operations Award at this year’s Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA) awards ceremony, for its work on the Anfield expansion project at the Liverpool Football Club ground.

As the largest Trade Association in the lifting industry, the LEEA Awards look to recognise members who have done the most to raise standards in ten distinct categories ranging between training, safety and innovation.

The Lifting Operation Award recognises an ‘incredible’ lifting operation, aimed at engineering teams that have completed a challenging lift despite space, height and weight issues.

Leading UK crane hire company, Ainscough, was involved in the removal of the old roof from the pre-existing Anfield Road stand. The project required a large collaborative effort from the Regional, Transport, Small Cranes and Heavy Cranes teams.

Due to the time-sensitive nature of the football season, Ainscough had two weeks to turn the work around, and had access to the Anfield pitch within days of the final home game of the season.

In total, Ainscough transport drivers had 220 movements through the very tight tunnel, on to the pitch. Cranes used included two crawlers, 600t and 400t capacity, plus a 550t strut crane and five different mobiles of varying capacity, including 2 x 300t, 200t and 100t.

All these cranes operated on a matted surface to protect the pitch, using 86 heavy duty steel mats. Probably the largest collection of mats used at one location in Ainscough’s history.

Hosted at the Rum Warehouse in Liverpool on the 21st November, representatives from Ainscough at the event included Heavy Cranes operations director, Andrew Spink, and technical contracts manager, David Baxter.

Spink said, “This project has been an unprecedented project in the heavy lifting world, in terms of planning, timing and execution. To be recognised by LEEA with the Lifting Operations Award is a real reward for all our team’s hard work.

“The Anfield Road job has been a real example of teamwork and technical ability. I’m proud of the expertise we’ve been able to display through our work, this has been a real highlight of my career.”