Lion Trackhire supplies road for London Olympics site

Portable roadway rental company Lion Trackhire provided a temporary track for a 1200 t crawler crane working at London's 2012 Olympic Village site earlier this year.

The crane, supplied by Ainscough Crane Hire, was being used to lift cooling equipment onto the roof of the new Marks and Spencer department store that is being built as part of the Olympic Village complex.

Lion Trackhire built a 6 m wide access road and a 900 m2 platform to provide access and a working area for a 500 t mobile and 1200 t capacity crawler crane. The 500 t machine was used to build up the massive crawler crane.

Nigel Hartill, of Simpson York, the main contractor who hired Lion for the project, said; "Not only did Lions' staff come down to build the temporary road over the holiday period between Christmas and New Year which is something we really appreciate, they also sent a team down in the early morning after the crane operation was completed to start removing the panels which meant that there were no delays on the job."

Lion Trackhire was founded in 2008 and is based in Calverton, Nottinghamshire, UK. In July last year it established a depot in Germany and the company said it was "Europe's fastest growing provider of portable roadways and ground cover/access systems...and is rapidly expanding across mainland Europe."

The company uses "advanced" aluminium track panels that have an anti -slip surface for increased pedestrian safety, and the edges of the roadways are cloaked with either bolted-on PVC mats or aluminium ramps, giving a neat finish and reduced tripping hazards.

In addition to providing temporary access and work surfaces for cranes and other equipment on construction sites, the company supplies tracks for the outdoor events, film and TV, portable accommodation, transport and utilities sectors.