The firm is racing to hand over the building by the beginning of June, more than a month before the Olympic Games gets underway.
It has called in the services of crane specialist GGR and lifted a 6-tonne mini crane onto the 283m high final floor deck of the Shard—making it the highest ever compact crane in Britain.
GGR will be working from the rooftop for the next few months to lift glass panels from a storage unit on the 62nd floor onto the levels above on the north and west sides of the building.
The existing tower crane will now concentrate on completing the south and east elevations.
A total of 11,000 angled glass panels will eventually cover The Shard’s façade which has been specially designed to reflect the London skyline.
The Unic URW-706 compact crane was chosen to work at the summit of the skyscraper thanks to its proven experience with rooftop lifting.