How is the crane chosen and the lift planned?

People assume the question is whether a crane can lift a module. It nearly always can.

The real question is whether it can lift it at the distance the site demands, from the only place the crane can stand.

Capacity falls with reach

Every crane has a load chart. It states what the machine can lift at each radius, and the numbers drop steeply as the boom extends.

A machine rated for a large load close in may handle a fraction of that at full reach.

So the sizing calculation is not the weight of the heaviest module. It is the weight of the heaviest module at the furthest point it has to be placed, with the crane standing where it is actually able to stand.

On a deep site with a narrow frontage, the crane sits at the street and reaches to the back, and that reach drives everything.

Where the crane stands

**Ground bearing.** A crane on outriggers concentrates enormous load into four points. The ground has to carry it, which sometimes means engineered mats and occasionally means ground improvement.

Set-up over a buried service, a stormwater line, a septic system or a basement slab is a serious matter, and it is why [service location](/blog/site-constraints-that-decide-modular-viability) happens before the lift plan.

**Level and space.** Outriggers need to be fully extended to achieve the rated capacity. A crane that cannot fully deploy is a smaller crane.

**Street occupation.** Where the crane stands on the road, that is a permit, a traffic management plan, and frequently a restriction on which day and which hours.

What is overhead

Powerlines are the first check and they are the most common reason a lift plan changes.

There are minimum approach distances to energised lines, and where the swing cannot maintain them, the options are a different crane position, a different machine, or having the supply isolated or covered by the network operator. That last one is an external dependency with its own lead time.

Trees, awnings, neighbouring buildings and street furniture all constrain the swing path as well.

The plan itself

A documented lift study, prepared before the day: the crane model, its position, the load chart working, the rigging, the swing path for each module, the exclusion zones and the sequence.

Rigging designed for the module rather than assumed. A fully fitted-out module is picked from designated points, and those points are part of the structural design, which is one of the reasons the frame is built the way it is.

Exclusion zones that keep people out from under the load, and a plan for the neighbours and the public where the swing crosses a boundary or a footpath.

Weather limits stated in advance. Wind is what stops lifts, and the threshold is decided before anyone is standing there deciding under pressure.

Why this feeds back into design

The crane is not a logistics detail resolved at the end. It shapes the project.

If the only viable crane position gives a reach that cannot handle a large module, the modules get smaller and the design changes. That is a [module count](/blog/how-many-modules-make-a-dwelling) decision, and it is made during design rather than discovered at installation.

A site assessed early tells you which of these you are dealing with while changing the answer is still cheap.

On the day

The sequence is fixed, the ground is prepared, the foundations are surveyed and confirmed, and the modules arrive in order.

What that actually looks like is covered in [installation day](/blog/what-happens-on-installation-day).

Send us the site and we will assess the craneage.

MADEmodular / MADEbetter.