Week 36, 2026: tower crane erected in a single day at Circulus Utrecht

Tower crane

Week 36, 2026 – A tower crane goes up in a single day

2 September 2026

Wednesday, nine in the morning, clear blue sky, and the square concrete pad that showed up in the middle of the plot back in July finally makes sense. A big yellow mobile crane from Kraan Techniek Nederland is parked by the entrance with its boom straight up, and it's lifting a dark blue machinery unit, the size of a garden shed, over the rebar deck. On the pad the first sections of an orange lattice mast are already bolted together, with two fitters in red overalls working at its base. Lorries loaded with more mast sections wait along the road.

A yellow mobile crane lifting a dark blue tower-crane machinery unit on chains against a clear blue sky, the first orange lattice mast sections of a tower crane standing on the left with fitters at the base, a rebar mesh deck, excavator, red Kraan Techniek Nederland vans and a lorry with mast sections on the right

The dark machinery unit hanging from the mobile crane's hook beside the growing orange lattice tower crane mast on the Circulus site, rebar mesh deck and black cable ducts in the foreground, brick apartment building with balconies behind under a blue sky

Stepping back to the corner shows the whole set-up: the mobile crane's boom leaning far out over the plot, the hook hanging above the half-built mast, and the rebar deck running rust-brown right up to the edge of the pavement. By half past nine the unit has been set down, and the hook is swinging back for the next piece.

Wide-angle view across the rust-brown rebar mesh deck of the Circulus site toward a yellow mobile crane with its boom extended high over a partly built orange lattice tower crane mast, red vans parked beside it, brick apartment blocks under a deep blue morning sky

The Circulus site from the entrance during tower crane assembly: yellow mobile crane boom raised, the lattice mast on its pad in the middle of the rebar deck, stacked yellow site cabins, a sand heap and timber formwork boards in the foreground

By half past six in the evening the mobile crane has packed up and gone, and in its place stands a complete tower crane: a tall yellow mast, a long horizontal jib reaching across the site, and a counter-jib loaded with ballast over the rebar deck. It's the tallest thing on the street by a distance, and from now on it's what you see first when you come round the corner.

A newly erected yellow lattice tower crane with its long horizontal jib and counter-jib standing over the Circulus site in the evening, a deck of rust-brown rebar mesh with column starter bars in the foreground, yellow site cabins and brick apartment blocks under an overcast sky

Down at the entrance end the quieter work has kept going. Pairs of thick black ducts stand upright out of the sand where the cables and pipes will come into the building, a trench of red, blue and green conduit runs past the pile caps, and a galvanised concrete skip is waiting beside it. By the cabins someone has left a pallet of white and pink insulation boards, which is the first sign that the site is thinking beyond the foundations.

Entrance corner of the Circulus site: two black utility ducts standing upright in the sand beside yellow-capped pile caps, a trench with red, blue and green conduit, a galvanised concrete skip, rebar cages on the left, an orange skip, coloured containers, a sand heap and yellow site cabins

Black upright utility ducts and yellow-capped starter bars in the sand in front of the rebar mesh deck, the base of the new yellow tower crane mast and a seven-storey brick apartment block behind, coloured containers along the site edge

Double-stacked yellow Kwakkenbos site cabins behind a heap of sand, a pallet of white and pink insulation boards and a red-topped mortar tub beside a scaffold pole in the foreground, a service trench with coloured conduit and yellow-capped pile caps on the left