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BMS A/S
Sofiendalsvej 94A, 1.
DK-9200 Aalborg SV

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Case
Truck-mounted Lifts
Construction

IN HER MAJESTY'S SERVICE

For almost 160 years the Victoria Tower has been standing at the southwest end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England. With its 98.5 metres it is slightly taller than the more famous sister Elizabeth Tower that was formerly known as the Clock Tower – and popularly referred to as Big Ben – at the north end of the palace.

Close to 16 decades does of course not pass unnoticed, and in April 2018 a large piece of masonry from a stone angel that sits near the top of Victoria Tower broke away and fell to the ground. Due to the high volume of pedestrians walking past the Palace of Westminster each day it was necessary to act fast and inspect the stonework to ensure nothing like this would happen again.

Therefore DBR Limited – a company specialised in conserving England’s built heritage – commissioned a 103-metres platform from the BMS Lift Division so the stonework on Victoria Tower could be thoroughly inspected.

First of all the BMS Lift Division carried out a site survey the week prior to the job itself to make sure the 103-metres platform would be suitable. Furthermore, the specialists from BMS advised of any street furniture that needed to be removed as well as recommended that additional crane mats should be used in conjunction with the original outrigger boards to reduce point loadings on site.

Due to the Victoria Tower measuring almost 100 metres in height the BMS platform was the only one able to get the people from DBR Limited to where they needed to be. Working at full height and full outreach the platform enabled them to assess aspects of the building, which in the past have only been accessible with costly and time-consuming scaffolding solutions.

As the crew from DBR Limited decided to inspect all elevations of the tower the BMS Lift Division was on site for two weeks with the 103-metres platform.

Safety is always a crucial matter – not least when working at more than 100 metres above street level. Until now, the major lift solutions have not been appro-ved for use at wind speeds of more than 12 metres per second – equivalent to force 6 on the Beaufort scale. However, together with Palfinger AG the BMS Group has developed a lift version authorised to operate at up to 20.8 metres per second, corresponding to force 9 or ‘severe gale’ – that is, in weather where roof tiles loosen and branches break off.

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