Lifting equipment for civil engineering and construction.

Civil engineering and major construction projects are defined by their constraints — a segment has to fit the bridge, a tunnel liner has to fit the bore, a transformer has to land in a pre-poured bund within tolerances that leave no room for rigging slop. The lifting equipment specified for these projects has to reflect that reality: purpose-built, signed off, and predictable.

Where Somers equipment is specified

Somers Handling supplies bespoke lifting equipment into civil engineering contractors, infrastructure programmes, precast concrete operators and specialist construction consultancies. Project shapes include:

• Precast segment lifting frames for tunnel, bridge and modular construction programmes — sized to segment geometry, balanced for the as-cast centre of gravity, and signed off against BS EN 13155 with full proof-load test certification.
• Spreader beams and H-frames for bridge-component lifts where generic rigging can’t accommodate the specific load and sling-angle constraints.
• Davits and cast-in sockets for confined-space access on infrastructure projects — water treatment plants, substations, tunnel inspection chambers, underground vaults — including man-riding variants to BS EN 795 Class E.
• One-off bespoke rigging for the edge cases: unusual load geometries, demanding tolerances, regulatory constraints that rule out off-the-shelf equipment.

Engineering priorities

• Load-specific design. Construction lifts are rarely repeated. Each design is CAD-modelled to the specific load, the specific rigging angles and the specific site constraints.
• Programme certainty. Civil engineering schedules are built around booked crane slots, weather windows and contractor interfaces. Our engineering and manufacturing sequence is structured to hit fixed customer dates, even for bespoke work.
• Documentation for the site file. Construction projects live and die by their documentation — method statements, risk assessments, lifting plans, proof-load certificates, competent-person declarations. We supply complete engineering packs that slot into the customer’s site documentation system.
• Traceability. Material certificates, weld records and NDT reports are part of the standard handover — necessary for rail, nuclear, offshore and increasingly for mainstream infrastructure work.

Complementary services

Construction and civil engineering customers often engage us through design consultancy first — a feasibility study or concept design for a non-standard lifting requirement — before proceeding to manufacture. We can also carry out independent design reviews of third-party lifting proposals where a second engineering opinion is required before procurement commits.