Madison Construction has a busy schedule undertaking an array of projects for its parent company, Stor-Age, a property developer focusing on storage space. All the contractor’s projects are fast track in nature and for this reason it runs efficient teams that only focus on building. It shies away from becoming involved in ancillary construction related activities, such as operating and maintaining “yellow” equipment including its tower crane requirements.

All Madison Construction’s tower cranes are hired from SA French, a division of Torre Lifting Solutions.

“We did consider buying a few pre-owned cranes a while back, but decided against it. Owning cranes is certainly not our profession. We are adept at building and definitely don’t want to start dabbling in the intricacies of storing, maintaining and transporting them. Apart from being extremely specialised, it is very costly and time consuming,” says Leon de Klerk, contracts manager at Madison Construction.

De Klerk and his team are involved in a very complex project in Essexwold where a Potain MCT 88 crane is being used to lift scaffolding and raw material in the preparation stages of the build. It will then move onto handling the formwork and building materials as well as help place the trusses and steel sheeting to complete the roof. In addition, it will be put to good use lifting pallets containing all the necessary finishings that will be unpacked inside the structure and installed throughout after the roof has been completed.

De Klerk says that he is extremely impressed by the condition of the crane which reveals the extent of the preparation undertaken on SA French’s crane fleet before being delivered to site.

He is also impressed by the features of the Potain MCT 88. The 160 t unit is actually larger than the 100 t unit initially requested for the job. SA French did not have the smaller unit on hand so it made the larger one available to Madison Construction at the same rental rate. The crane can lift 1,3 t at 50 metres and has a maximum lifting capacity of 5 t at 13,7 metres. It is equipped with a 52 metre jib and chassis, and its hook height is 30 metres. Werner Killian, also one of Madison Construction’s contracts managers, who was involved in the design of the civil works on this site and is overseeing another Stor-Age development in Sunninghill where a Potain MC85B is being put through its paces, says service and price are important to the contractor.

In general, Madison Construction insists that all its supply chain partners respond to its needs six days a week, and Killian says SA French has lived up to this expectation.

One can expect to see more SA French cranes as Stor-Age mobilises Madison Construction crews to double it storage space over the next five years.