Scheduled to open in 2017, the “Arena Nanterre-La Défense” is an “indoor” stadium in the Hauts-de-Seine region. L’Arena is both an auditorium and a rugby stadium. Every year the venue will host about fifty events – including concerts, conventions, sports matches and live performances – attended by between 10,000 and 40,000 spectators.
Sarens was awarded a 1.3 million Euros contract for the installation of the roof of Arena 92. The roof was initially designed to be a retractable roof but will now remain closed permanently for acoustic reasons.
Sarens dispatched the mighty 1350-ton Liebherr LR 11350 crawler crane in the SDBW configuration with ballast 200 to 54m / 48 m and Superlift up to 560 tons. It took two weeks to assemble the crane. Since the Arena lies in the heart of Paris, it was a challenge to get all the equipment and the huge crane to the site through the narrow passages and spaces of Paris. Moreover the limited space available inside the Arena made it a further challenging task to assemble the crane. But the Sarens team swiftly assembled the crane to start the operation by Mid-August.
As part of the first lift, Sarens installed the 318t Mega structure-1 which forms a part of the 120m (393 ft.) long beam which contains 4 sections together weighing 640t. This large beam segment was manufactured partly at Arcelor Mittal and assembled on site.
The steel structure had to be moved through a total distance 40.5m (132 ft.) The MS1 was picked up at 28m (91 ft.) and slewed by 175 degrees moving a further 20m (65 ft.) and was eventually boomed down to its final position.
