Birmingham statues
During a tramline extension in Birmingham, the location of the construction work meant that two statues needed to be temporarily uplifted, stored and then carefully reinstated once the work had been completed.
The Iron Man statue, which weighed 7te and the Boulton, Watt and Murdoch statue, which weighed 6te were both located in busy, high-profile city centre locations. The project required a substantial amount of planning and preparation as well as close collaboration with local authorities.
A solution was devised to use a tandem lift for the Iron Man statue. Utilising a 55te capacity mobile crane and a 15te capacity Hiab to top and tail the statue. It was then lowered horizontally into a crate before being packed and lifted onto the Hiab for onward transport to the Allelys depot for storage.
Working to heritage standards for the protection of the statues
In addition to the lift plans that were created for both lifts, the Boulton, Watt and Murdoch statue also required additional bracing to be designed, fabricated and implemented. Once lifted from its plinth, a crate was built around the golden statue and additional bracing within the crate inserted for protection during transport on the Hiab.
We employed specialist conservators to manage the conservation to the correct heritage standards for the handling, packing, storage and cleaning / maintenance of both pieces whilst in storage, and pre and post inspections of both statues were conducted.
