Tallest crane in Southern Hemisphere goes to work in New Zealand demolition zone.
There’s a new high-rise on Christchurch’s skyline. The biggest crane in the southern hemisphere is about to start work on one of the city’s largest demolition jobs. The crane is about to pick apart the Clarendon Tower, piece by piece.
But it’s not just a wrecker as the company that bought it plans to use the crane for the rebuild too. It has already been nick-named ‘Big Red’ and can reach further than the length of a rugby field.
It took 17 trucks to transport the 400-tonne crane to Christchurch. The crane was bought in Germany for $5.5 million and can stretch the full width of the building it’s about to bring down.
Smith Crane and Construction says a crane this big was essential. “It’s significant because it is the only one of its size that’s capable of doing the lifts we need to do to deconstruct the Clarendon Towers,” spokesman Clive Baddeley says.
It’s the new heavyweight in the battle of big machinery, out flexing the previous champion, the high reach excavator called ‘Twinkletoes‘.
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