Heavy Recovery Jobs

Serious RTC M60 Manchester

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About this job:

On the 18th of August 2008 at 05:47am The Mansfield Groups operational centre received a call from Greater Manchester Police department for their heavy rescue team to attend a major incident on the M60 Manchester city ring road.

The incident itself involved a 75 ton heavy lifting mobile crane which had come to rest on its side on an embankment, partially blocking the motor way. Thankfully the driver only suffered minor cuts and bruises.

The Mansfield Group’s Chairman, Darrell Mansfield, was first to attend the scene making the initial assessment as to the equipment and team he would require to perform the vehicle recovery successfully and without causing any further damage to the road surface.

Due to the sheer weight and position of the vehicle, the decision was made to use three Century 1060S rotators and a single Recoverer Trident to perform the recovery. The team would consist of Darrell Mansfield as Incident Manager, Brett Mansfield, Lee Mansfield and Anthony Weaver operating the three Century rotators, Peter Stroud operating the Recoverer Trident and Paul Earles & Michael Bowen operating a 4 axle Boniface Lowslide recovery trailer which would finally transport the casualty away from the scene. With peak travel time closing in fast, the Highways Agency Traffic Officer made the decision to delay the recovery until 11.00am.

In preparation for the motorway being closed, the Mansfield Group’s heavy rescue team rigged the casualty putting the necessary lifting chains and strops into place. The 4 recovery vehicles were also rigged with the necessary snatch blocks that would enable the lift to take place. It was agreed that the best way to lift the crane was to perform a reverse roll.

At 11:00am the Highways Agency closed the motorway. Mansfield Group’s team positioned their vehicles enabling them to lift the crane onto its wheels, winch it off the embankment and onto the hard shoulder in a single operation. With this manoeuvre performed exactly as planned, the casualty was in an ideal position for the Lowslide trailer to load and transport it back to their Manchester depot.

The motorway was re-opened at 11:55am.