The chamber, which was seven months in construction at NDA workshop and on site, weighed 121 tonnes and was lifted at 4.30am on February 11 by a 400t crane.
The drier cone went in a few days before, as site engineers took advantage of dry, calm weather.
Fonterra’s general manager of operations in the Central North Island, Craig Betty, said the big lifts were weather dependent because of work site safety.
“The lifts were really successful and the $390 million project at Lichfield is right on schedule for construction completion in August,” he said.
The high-efficiency whole milk powder drier and supporting infrastructure will be the second-biggest after Darfield Two, which has the capacity to produce 30t an hour.
Lichfield will be slightly smaller, at 28t/hr and 4.4 million litres of milk a day at peak.
It will more than double milk receivals at Lichfield, where a maximum of 3.2m litres a day were hitherto turned into cheese.
The $390m spend includes a drystore for warehousing and a rail load-out, a gas-fired boiler, a water re-use plant, a wastewater treatment plant with expanded irrigation systems, and expanded tanker wash and parking areas.
