Marr’s 121t roof truss lifts at Hinkley Point C: logistics lessons for engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on New Civil Engineer
30 Second Briefing
Marr has installed 121t roof trusses for the Unit 2 turbine hall at EDF’s Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, using heavy-lift equipment to position the long-span steel members in a confined site. The timelapse footage shows sequential placement of the trusses over the turbine hall footprint, a critical step in closing the building envelope ahead of heavy mechanical and electrical fit-out. For civil and structural teams, the operation illustrates logistics and lift planning for multi-hundred-tonne steelwork on a congested nuclear construction platform.
Technical Brief
- Timelapse sequence allows frame-by-frame review of lift sequencing, slew paths and hook time per truss.
- Video evidence supports back-analysis of crane utilisation rates and interaction with other Hinkley Point C workfaces.
- Visual record helps check actual temporary bracing and stability arrangements against method statements and lift plans.
- Engineers can observe real clearances to adjacent nuclear structures, haul routes and exclusion zones during heavy lifts.
- Footage provides a basis for validating 4D construction models and revising future programme logic for Unit 2.
- Time-compressed imagery is useful for toolbox talks on rigging discipline, tag-line control and wind hold points.
- Recording of operations offers traceable documentation for nuclear quality assurance and independent constructability reviews.
Our Take
Marr’s work on 121t trusses at Hinkley Point C’s Unit 2 turbine hall sits alongside its heavy-lift crane deployments on HS2’s Old Oak Common and Encyclis’ Walsall Energy Recovery Facility, signalling that UK mega-project contractors are repeatedly turning to the same specialist for complex, high-mass lifts.
With NNB Generation Company (HPC) now consulting on extra backup generation capacity at Hinkley Point C, the successful installation of major turbine hall elements by contractors such as Marr reduces schedule risk around later mechanical and electrical fit-out tied to that permitting pathway.
Hinkley Point C appears frequently in our 858-piece Infrastructure database, and the move into large roof truss installation on Unit 2 suggests the project is transitioning from civils-heavy phases towards more integrated structural and plant assembly, which typically tightens crane utilisation windows and lift planning tolerances.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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