CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- A steel space frame that is the size of 1.4 standard football fields and heavier than eight Boeing 767 airliners was lifted by 20 meters. Can you imagine?

This happened on January 5 in the hangar hall of the Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport (CJIA), which is part of the CJIA West Hanger Project contracted by China Metallurgical Construction Engineering. After seven hours of hoisting and installation, the steel space frame stably landed on top of the hall and achieved a millimeter-precision connection.

The steel-structure roof under construction is a large-span space grid structure, with a maximum single span of 100 meters and a maximum height of 9.75 meters for the gate truss. The overall lifted area of the steel space frame reached 9,600 square meters, and the total lifted weight was about 820 tons.

How to lift such a huge giant smoothly? The reporter found that there were 14 jacks above the hangar hall, with a maximum pulling force of 120 tons.

‘Integral Assembling on Ground’ technology and ‘Super Large Hydraulic Synchronous Lifting Systems’ were used to lift the steel space frame, and the use of computers and sensing and monitoring systems could automatically realize synchronous operation, load balance, posture correction, operation locking, process display, fault alarm, and other functions, said Liu Junlin, Executive Manager of the CJIA West Hanger Project. These technologies helped them overcome many difficulties, such as large spans of steel grid, complex spatial structures, and high-altitude operation, Liu added.

During the lifting process, the displacement of each lifting point may not be synchronized. Sensing and monitoring systems will detect this problem the first time and stop the lifting immediately. The lifting process will continue only after adjustments are made, to ensure safe and accurate installation of the steel space frame.

The CJIA West Hanger is an aircraft maintenance hangar with the largest span in Chongqing. It’s expected that the construction of the main and secondary structures will be completed before the Spring Festival, and the whole project is expected to be completed within this year.

Upon its completion and commissioning, the project will be mainly responsible for the maintenance and overhaul of Jiangbei Airport aircrafts. (Translated by Yuki, Fathom Language Limited)