Nordic Crane recently participated in an exciting and challenging project as part of Västlänken in Gothenburg. The project involved the installation of the impressive artwork bLink, which has already received significant attention as the most visible element of the project – both from the E6 highway and the railway.

The bLink artwork, valued at 35 million SEK, is not only large but also has a shape that makes lifting with a mobile crane particularly challenging. With a tricky center of gravity (COG) and asymmetric connection points, it required specialized expertise and the right equipment. Nordic Crane deployed a 550-ton crane and advanced technology, including air hoists with digital weight sensors connected to a main computer, to ensure maximum control and stability during the lift.

Wind conditions also played a crucial role, with a maximum allowable wind speed of 7.4 m/s. The Nordic Crane team had to wait for the perfect weather window to safely carry out the operation.

Professional team
A project like this requires skilled professionals, and Nordic Crane assembled an experienced team:

• Crane Operator LTM 1650: Jörgen Kristiansson
• Crane Operator LTM 1300: Matts Torkelsson
• Crane Operator LTM 1095: Robert Lindblom
• Lifting Manager and Rigging Supervisor: Gunnar Sundqvist

Together, they ensured that bLink was placed in its final position, much to the satisfaction of the Västlänken project and the public.

Read more about the artwork here: bLink Statens Konstråd

The text has been translated using AI.

The Borregaard factory in Sarpsborg is one of the world’s leading biorefineries. By utilizing natural, renewable raw materials, Borregaard produces advanced and environmentally friendly biochemicals that can replace oil-based products.

When a 160-meter-long chip channel used for wood chip transport needed to be replaced in October, Nordic Crane was the obvious partner for the job.

The chip channel is a crucial part of Borregaard’s infrastructure. Without it in operation, production would also come to a halt. Therefore, it was essential that the dismantling and installation of the new channel happened quickly when the replacement took place.

Large Team on Site
As it wasn’t possible to assemble or weld directly on the channel, the Nordic Crane team had to come up with a functional solution. By building two lifting platforms measuring 10×4 meters, they were able to support the sections during dismantling by lifting from underneath the channel without requiring welding or bolting.

– The first phase of planning began back in January 2024. We deployed a team of 30 people and seven cranes. In addition, the specialized transport division assisted with the transportation of both the old and new channel, while the Heavy Lift division contributed with two SPMT units, Johannessen explains.

The dismantling began on October 14, and a new channel was in place by October 18.

When a crew wagon got stuck in the support wire during maintenance work on the Bømla Bridge in Sunnhordaland, Nordic Crane was contacted to rescue the wagon quickly and effectively. However, the task was complex due to several factors, but with good cooperation across departments, we overcame the challenges.

The Bømla Bridge is a suspension bridge measuring 988 meters, with a free span of 577 meters and a tower height of 105 meters. Suspension bridges along the coast are exposed to damage due to moisture and saltwater. Weather, wind, salt spray, and temperature changes quickly lead to rust and other wear problems on the bridges. To prevent this, crew wagons are attached to the wires, where they install dehumidifiers, among other things.

When one of these wagons got stuck during maintenance work, Nordic Crane was assigned the task of safely bringing it down to the ground again.

– At Nordic Crane, we are fortunate to have departments that work closely together. Engineering, in particular, helped us a lot this time. Together with the customer, we came up with a solution that met all requirements.

After thorough preparations, including laying gravel as a base for support legs, measuring points, and placing timber mats, one of our 250-tonners, a Grove GMK5250XL-1, was finally able to lift down the 16-ton wagon.

Effective planning and excellent execution by our fantastic employees ensured that traffic on the bridge was up and running again in no time!

This text is translated by AI.

At Nordic Crane, HSE (Health, Safety, and Environment) is a priority all 52 weeks of the year, but each year we dedicate a special week to highlight selected topics and strengthen safety awareness. This tradition contributes to continuous improvement and gives us the opportunity to dive deeper into specific areas requiring extra attention. This year, we are particularly focused on fall prevention, aiming to reduce the risk of injuries and accidents related to falls. “I secure myself against falling” is one of our eight Life Saving Rules.

Close Contact on the Job Site
A key element of HSE Week is meeting our employees where they are—on-site, with our customers. This not only creates closer dialogue with our employees, but also with our customers and partners. Collaboration and mutual trust are vital in working together to achieve a zero-injury workday. This understanding also motivates our participation in the “Collaboration for Safety in the Construction and Civil Engineering Industry” (SfS BA), which offers the important “Fareblind” course. The course is mandatory for all Nordic Crane employees and is required for access to most construction and civil engineering sites in Norway.

A Holistic Approach to HSE
With the launch of our digital safety manual, SAFETY, there was discussion about renaming HSE Week to Safety Week. However, we chose to keep the HSE designation to emphasize the importance of both health and environment, in addition to safety. The week includes activities that promote a strong work environment and enhance team spirit. We believe that the best way to build a safety culture is through personal contact and collaboration – both internally and with external partners. By working together and taking shared ownership of processes, we achieve the best results.

Lessons from This Year’s HSE Week
HSE Week is designed to take place alongside near-normal operations. It’s important for us to maintain our high level of service to customers, as we understand there are expectations for crane operations and transportation to proceed as planned. This year’s program was well-balanced, allowing us to focus on important HSE initiatives, which will be followed up and further developed, including at our upcoming Safety Seminar. Several initiatives were launched that will contribute to continuous improvement moving forward.

Stagnation is Regression
In HSE work, it’s essential never to settle for “good enough.” Risks constantly evolve, and new barriers and measures must be developed to address these challenges. We are convinced that the path to a zero-injury workday lies in continuous learning, experience-sharing, and improvement. It is our responsibility to always focus on how we can “do even better tomorrow,” ensuring that everyone comes home safely – every day, for life.

Nordic Crane Leading the Way
Through our focus on continuous development, collaboration, and improvement, we ensure that HSE work at Nordic Crane not only keeps up with industry standards but also leads the way in safety efforts. Our goal is clear: No injuries, no accidents – a safe workday for all our employees and partners.

In Denmark, we have advanced greatly and are continuously securing new crane lifting contracts within industry and infrastructure. As it has been for many years, our loyal customers in construction and concrete are, of course, always important to keep our wheels turning. Overall, these are exciting times in Denmark with many new employees, and several new cranes. Additionally, we have broken ground and are in the process of building our new head office in Copenhagen.

In Sweden, the project organization has gotten off to a good start in northern Sweden with the expansion of the steel mill in Boden outside Luleå. We have entered into important agreements on both the west and east coasts that involve significant work for our cranes when our customers are to perform maintenance, as well as “shutdowns” or audit-stops in the coming years. Our mobile crane business in infrastructure, construction and industry, also produce great results throughout Sweden. 

In Norway, we are experiencing heavy competition for assignments, and it is crucial that we deliver the expected quality to our customers. Price is of course important, and we must be competitive in this area as well. It is motivating to see that we are signing one contract after another. Particularly gratifying is the progress we are experiencing within large projects in Eastern Norway, as well as record-breaking agreements within industry in Central Norway and Western Norway.

Not the biggest, but the best!

For many years, Nordic Crane has invested heavily in the development of our mobile cranes. To be able to offer our customers even better solutions, in 2023 and 2024, we invested significantly in what we call Heavy Lift. This includes the largest cranes and the most advanced equipment for lifting and transporting large modules and heavy packages. Everything from bridges and installations in hospitals, to modules and equipment for industry or for the oil industry. We now have a considerable number of SPMT axles, we have a handful of large crawler cranes and a formidable team of project managers and engineers with broad knowledge and experience.

Nordic Crane now has over 450 employees who can offer large and small customers complete solutions throughout Scandinavia within mobile cranes, crane trucks, mobile tower cranes, special transport, Heavy Lift and much more. As always, we will work safely and deliver world-class service and quality! 

That’s how crane magic is created!

Have a great summer!

Morten Heli-Hansen
CEO – Nordic Crane

At Nordic Crane, we work toward a sustainable future. Last summer, we helped build Sweden’s first wooden wind turbine with our 250-tonne all-electric crawler crane.

The benefits of wood
Using wood instead of steel for wind turbines can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 90%, because wood as a material binds carbon dioxide.

Our groundbreaking project used the world’s first electric crawler crane, the Liebherr LR 1250 Unplugged. This 100% electric crane can lift up to 250 tonnes.

Innovative solutions and collaboration

The 105-metre-high wooden tower is one of the world’s tallest wooden structures. “Operating large tower modules in wood requires innovative thinking to meet the new challenges that arise in the grey-zone between steel and wood,” explains project manager Peder Åsen from Nordic Crane.

“Each tower consists of seven sections of 14 meters, where each section is composed of 28 modules of 12 tonnes, so the dimensions are large,” he continues. Nordic Crane accepted the challenge and contributed with everything from cranes – to design of lifting points and developing work methods. We were involved from the get-go and participated in weekly meetings since 2022, where we contributed ideas and designed lifting equipment together with our engineering department.

At Nordic Crane we focus strongly on safety every single day of the year. However, one weekend a year we gather to learn from each other and work together with the goal of becoming even better at safety. The participants are safety representatives and leaders from our three countries, and this year roughly 60 people participated. Our goal is for everyone to come home safely, their whole lives. This year’s safety seminar was held the weekend of 5^th-7^th of April at Gardermoen with the working title – We Are Nordic Crane and Safety is Our Responsibility.

Further development of our Safety work
Heine Lien, Safety Manager for Nordic Crane Norway, focused his lecture on the fact that we must always consider the development of safety work. Times are changing and new and stricter demands are constantly placed on us and those who operate in our industry. We can confirm that we are keeping up with the current times and aim to show the way as a leading player in our industry. We will put safety first and everyone at Nordic Crane will come home safely, their whole lives. New customers and new industries also require us to work hard on development, good routines, strong and clear messages and, not least, good, and safe internal communication. Here we lead the way with our own Life Saving Rules and set a standard for how we want to work on safety in our industry. Safety must come first, which these rules secure and signal to all our employees every single day. We are proud of that!

Workplace visits – the employee’s psychosocial working environment
Jens Helbo, Safety Manager / HSEQ-Manager for Nordic Crane Denmark, highlighted our psychosocial working environment and how we can influence it through workplace visits. Workplace visits are important for good and healthy communication between management and all those who perform safe and solid safety work out in the field every single day. Through regular workplace visits, a close and good bond of trust is developed and a clear focus on behavioural change becomes possible. During workplace visits, awareness of safety becomes a part of everyday life, where we together get a common goal of coming home safely, our whole lives.

What can we do to create safe behaviour in the workplace?
Erik Everbrink, Safety Manager / HSEQ Manager for Nordic Crane Sweden, gave a good talk about our behaviour and how it affects safety in our everyday work. He talked about creating good relationships, continue competence development and being good role models to avoid injuries and reduce risk in the workplace. In this way, a good culture is created, and we can put a proper spotlight on safety every single day. We are proud that 99.98% of the time we work injury-free at Nordic Crane.

External thoughts and ideas
We were also fortunate to hear a great lecture by Teddy Broadhurst who has over 50 years of experience with cultural building safety work across the world. His experiences and stories leave deep traces and create useful discussions. We take this with us in our work.

Important to continue the work in our everyday life
The safety seminar this year was educational and up to date. It puts a necessary and proper spotlight on everything we do right in everyday life and the risks we are exposed to every single day. Together we create the culture we need for everyone to come home safe, their whole lives. Together we develop and help each other to maintain concentration and keep the necessary focus in safety work. Together we are strong, together we are Nordic Crane!

Nordic Crane is expanding all over Scandinavia and new projects constantly need our expertise and services. With the start-up of a new department in northern Sweden and several new projects and departments in Western Norway, we are facing exciting times. We always put safety first and it is clear, that Nordic Crane’s safety work is being noticed. We are now nominated for ESTA Awards 2024 in the Safety category with our digital safety manual aptly called: SAFETY.

Demanding jobs
We deliver complex and challenging lifts to the whole of Scandinavia and with that comes great responsibility and a clear focus on safety. In industries such as industry, oil and gas, infrastructure and wind power, the work we perform is demanding and involve risk. This places great demands on us being safety minded and what routines we must adhere to in our everyday work.SAFETY – a digital safety manual
Our digital safety manual SAFETY contains all the processes and safety measures we must adhere to in our everyday life. Detailed and established routines for a variety of situations we may face in our work. If something serious happens, we must have clear routines that are easily accessible digitally on the mobile. The same applies to daily routines in various work processes we carry out, as well as applicable regulations and instructions for all our machines and equipment. Everything complete, in one easily accessible place.

Life-saving rules
SAFETY also contains our own “Life-saving rules” which help us with the conventional and life-saving rules we must follow every single day to prevent something unwanted from happening. These eight rules put a necessary spotlight on how we can avoid danger and help us, our partners, and customers to come home safely, all our lives.

Proud finalists
We at Nordic Crane are proud finalists in the ESTA Awards 2024 and humbled by the recognition. We know that we work hard with HSE every single day and that we always put safety first in our work. However, with an effective and smart tool like SAFETY, we feel even safer at work and can offer safer services to our customers.

32-year-old Vibeke went from being a hairdresser to becoming a crane operator with us at Nordic Crane. She has now completed a truck certificate, a tower crane course, and a mobile crane course, and is well underway with her working day as a crane operator.

Vibeke is a trained skin and body therapist and is a certified hairdresser, but after many wonderful years in the beauty industry, her body reached its limits. She decided it was time for a 180-turn in her professional life, and after thorough research, she finally chose a crane operator. She has not regretted that for a second. Making such a drastic life-change is no easy task, but Vibeke found motivation and strength. 

– I said to myself, “I’m able to do this, and I’m going to do this”. It’s amazing how far you get with being a little stubborn and determined. I like ‘getting my hands dirty,’ and finding a job where I can spend some time outside was important to me. When I decided to find something completely different to work with, I posted on a women’s Facebook group asking what their professions were. I needed some inspiration. One day, someone sent me a private message saying she worked in the construction industry and enjoyed it! I didn’t really need to hear more. I contacted a school that held a machine operator course and started my education – she says eagerly. 

Vibeke joined us at Nordic Crane in December 2023 and feels that she has been warmly welcomed by colleagues at our department in Fredrikstad. 

– I am delighted with the choice, and I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to work for the best company in Norway. My colleagues at Nordic Cane have a lot of high competence and experience. I can learn a lot from that. I look forward to going to work every single day,” she says.

We are very pleased to have Vibeke join the team and hope this can contribute to more girls wanting to pursue a career as a crane operator.