First aluminium tower helicopter installation a success
On June 2nd Hyndla’s first commercial high voltage transmission tower project was installed using helicopter. The two Hyndla aluminium towers were delivered as a pilot-project with Elvia, the largest Norwegian TSO, and are part of a larger 132 kV project were Elvia is replacing the transmission line between Løvbergsmoen, Lutufallet and Trysil in the east of Norway.
The project is primarily constructed using wooden poles except for these two taller towers where Hyndla’s aluminium solution is being tested.
Both towers are 18 meters tall above ground and around 700kg (900kg with cross beam and all attached equipment) and were lifted in place in a single lift as shown in the video below. This is one of the tallest and strongest towers ever to be installed complete in one lift using a AS350 helicopter, which has a normal payload for these kinds of jobs of 800-1100kg.
The installation proved to be quick and easy thanks to the experienced Helitans pilot, Elvia and Laje ground crew and Hyndla design. Hyndla’s brackets fit perfectly and guided the towers in place on the foundation as intended. In order to secure the towers to the foundation so the helicopter could let go the towers were slid into place on the foundations and four bolts were secured on each leg of the towers.
The foundations for the towers were pre-installed in March 2021 making everything ready for installation before the frost left the ground as the site is unassessable with heavy machines in the summer due to wet marches.
Load requirements for the two towers were verified by Hyndla’s FEM calculations based on specific load scenarios from the project tool NetLin, commonly used for planning new transmission lines in Norway.
