As the service provider for the Alimak Group, Alimak Service is exclusively qualified to deliver custom service solutions for projects company wide. Recently, Alimak Service demonstrated expertise in delivering a replacement CoxGomyl facade access solution for the 200 Clarendon building in Boston. Like most Building Maintenance Units (BMU) installations on long-established buildings and structures, this project presented unique challenges. These issues included the absence of construction equipment on-site for heavy lifting and the time pressure of completing the installation without disruption to the internal operations of the building.
For this installation, the Building Maintenance Unit (BMU) had to be delivered to a designated parking area near the existing track in the centre of the building’s roof while navigating pre-existing features, including antennas, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment. These obstacles made installation via helicopter or derrick crane unpractical. As a result, the BMU was manufactured into smaller parts for transportation by the available service elevators before moving through a 25-metre passage to the installation site.
Alimak Service devised a plan including a rigging scaffold specifically designed to ease transport of the individual parts by lifting over HVAC units. As a constraint was limited to complete this task, two separate teams of Alimak Service technicians worked simultaneously across the rigging scaffold equipped with two beams and two motorised trollies.
A secondary trial was to transport two sections that could not travel via the elevators at 11 metres and 20 metres long. Thus, the Alimak Service team were required to utilise the old BMU to lift these parts with special outriggers ready to lift them into place. The process included the wire ropes with tensioning weights attached to mullion guides lowering to ground level. Next, technicians connected the wire ropes to the platform, and a weight test was conducted before the required components were lifted. Both complicated installation procedures were complete in a single day, with the new BMU wholly installed in less than two weeks.