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Balfour and Laing trial equipment to make concrete pours safer
Cristina Lago Deputy Editor
Laing O’Rourke and Balfour Beatty worked with Conquip for the last 18 months to develop and trial the equipment (Image: Conquip)
Construction equipment company Conquip has worked with Balfour Beatty and Laing O’Rourke subsidiary Select Plant Hire to design, manufacture and test a set of accessories to improve the safety of concrete skips.
Conquip said the new equipment removes the last lifting operation in the industry where a person needs to stand below a suspended load to operate the equipment.
An extended flow gate handle allows the pour to be controlled from a safer distance and helps to deliver a more accurate directional pour.
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The new attachments for the concrete skip can be used individually or together.
Conquip first released a concrete skip without a bale arm in 2017. This version featured lifting chains providing an alternative, two-point lifting option as well as the concrete skip with bale arm.
For the last two years, Conquip said many tier 1 contractors have further specified the without bale arm variant.
Conquip believes construction is moving increasingly in the direction of skips without bale arms as the best practice safety method. However, both are still in use in the industry.
Daniel Critchley, COO at Conquip Engineering Group, said: “Our development partnership with Balfour Beatty and Select Plant Hire has led to the best outcome to improve the safe use of concrete pouring equipment and we welcome any comments from our customers as they start to use these new attachments.”
The January/February 2026 issue of Construction Management magazine is now available to read in digital format.
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