GGR’s UNIC URW-706 spider crane took to the water recently to assist with essential repair work on Buscot Weir lock, Oxfordshire.

One of the UK’s leading Engineering firms was commissioned to repair two 2.5 tonne lock gates, each measuring 4m high by 2.5m wide, which needed to be lifted out of the lock for critical maintenance work.

Surrounding access to Buscot’s lock gates was impossible, resulting in a more unusual lifting solution using GGR’s UNIC 706 mini crane.  Weighing in at 7.9 tonnes, the UNIC spider crane was floated on top a purpose-built pontoon and towed 550 metres along the water by a motor boat.  The pontoon was 4.5m wide, 10m long and 1m deep and capable of carrying 12 tonnes.

Once in position, the URW-706 mini spider crane could easily straddle the 5m wide gap over the lock to remove each 2.5t gate.

First built in 1790, Buscot lock sits adjacent to Buscot Park which was once the location of a sugar beet alcohol distillery in the 1860’s.  The lock is now a National Trust place of beauty and home to otters and kingfishers—our UNIC mini crane was one of the more unusual inhabitants of this part of the Thames!

It’s not the first time GGR’s UNIC cranes have been hired for waterways projects: we’ve lifted a bridge in the Italian Borgo, gone with the flow at Chester canal, and floated on top of a Venetian barge.