A CRANE firm is getting set for the job of the century.

GWS, based at Great Harwood, is supplying four special cranes as part of the huge construction project to build the Millennium Dome in the capital.

A 500-tonne mobile crane has been used to lift the steel masts for the dome at Greenwich. The dome is 50 metres high at its centre - as tall as Nelson's column.

The dome is supported by the 100 metre steel masts which will be held in place by more than 70 kilometres of high-strength cable.

The GWS crane is 21 feet across and needs the help of a smaller crane to assemble it. Two other 60 tonne cranes have already been used on the project for piling work on the foundations.

With a circumference of one kilometre and a ground floor spanning 80,000 square metres, the Millennium Dome is twice the size of the Georgia Dome in the USA, currently the largest building of its type in the world.

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