Favourites

It is gratifying to report that this year's incarnation of the annual IC TopLift contest to find readers' favourite lifting job from the previous 12 months had a record number of votes. These were more evenly distributed across the 10 entries this year than in previous years, which made it a much closer-run event than it has been for some time.

Having said that, there was still a clear winner and a clear top two for the runners-up positions.

So, this year's winner, by a healthy 9% margin, was entry number 9 Turbine tale, a job completed by Scotland, UK-based Weldex. The project was for the onshore lifting work to install a 5MW wind turbine offshore in deep water.

Next, as First Runner Up, was Switzerland-based VSL for its job Getting physical. VSL used a portal crane to lower components weighing thousands of tonnes to build the Compact Muon Solenoid detector at the CERN physics laboratory.

Close behind, as Second Runner Up, was US-based Emmert International for its job Caribbean power. Emmert shipped, moved and installed a 454 tonne engine in the Bahamas.

Over the next eight or 10 months if your company completes a lifting project that you think should be entered for next year's TopLift competition, please send the details to the editor on alex.dahm@khl.com or by post to: KHL Group Southfields, Southview Road, Wadhurst, East Sussex TN5 6TP, United Kingdom.

Congratulations to the winners and a big thank you to all those who took the time to vote. Your efforts are appreciated. Thanks also to the companies entered in the contest and to the people who supplied information and photographs for the project reports.