<b>Emaar Properties</b> has sent out some good photos of the cranes being removed from the <b>Burj Dubai</b> . These three huge tower cranes could lift up to 25-tonnes at a time and could withstand 120km per hour winds. More stats: - 63,300 tonnes of steel reinforcement were lifted - the cranes were operational for 45,000 man-hours - 35 technicians manned the cranes Read Emaar's account of how the cranes were removed after the jump ... <b>Tower crane dismantling: Perfect orchestration</b> (From the Emaar Press Release) Installation of the three tower cranes used for the construction of the higher levels of Burj Dubai was relatively straightforward, as sections of the cranes could be moved up the tower with the completion of new levels. But as the tower grew in height, the floor plates and working area became smaller and smaller, providing insufficient room to fit the three cranes at the top of construction. Dismantling the towers was considerably more complex than installing them. The first crane was removed in November 2007 and installed at Level 99 in order to serve as a future recovery crane. For the next 11 months, the two remaining cranes continued their climb up the tower until October 2008 when one of them was removed due to the small size of the tower's floor-plate. This left one final crane to continue with the rest of the exterior work. In June 2009, the final crane had to be removed in order to allow the exterior cladding and finishing works to progress in the area it occupied. This longest serving crane had been in operation since the start of construction in March of 2005. A small recovery crane was lifted up and installed at Level 159. With recovery cranes now positioned at Levels 99 and 159, the task of removing the last crane was ready to begin. The process started with the crane climbing down from its working height of over 700 metres. The crane removed its own mast sections and lowered them to the ground until the boom and power pack were at the position of the Level 159 recovery crane. From there, the Level 159 recovery crane dismantled the remainder of the main crane, lowering the pieces of boom, mast and power pack to the recovery crane at Level 99, which further lowered them to the ground. The dismantling of the cranes at Burj Dubai is indeed a finely orchestrated set piece - except that the artists here were huge machines!