A Liebherr LR 1600/2 has helped to complete a railway bridge build in tight, wet conditions.
The crawler crane was enlisted on behalf of Deutsche Bahn by lifting specialist, Riga-Mainz, and was dispatched to the work site in Bad Wimpfen, Baden-Württemberg.
Due to time constraints and limited space, initial proposals for the deployment of two cranes were rejected, and the Liebherr unit was tasked with performing the lifts on its own.
“[Riga-Mainz] was the only supplier to offer a solution using just one crane,” explained Kathrin Gottschang from the project management team at DB Projektbau.
“The concept suggested by [head of Riga-Mainz] Uwe Langer was also the only one that included [threading] the cross beam through the bridge trusses,” she added.
With responsibility for both the lifts and foundation planning, Langer and his team had 12 piles driven into the site to a depth of 13m. Calculated to withstand 507kN of pressure, these piles acted as reinforcements for the two giant, concrete ramps that ultimately bore the weight of the crawler crane.
Two other Liebherr cranes – an LTM 1200-5.1 and an LTF 1045-4.1 – were used for setup and support work.
The Liebherr LR 1600/2 was then able to singlehandedly hoist the 355-tonne steel bridge into place using its 54m lattice boom. With the cross beam and attachment equipment, the crane hoisted a total of 402 tonnes – all in tight, wintery conditions.
Impressively, the Riga-Mainz team decided against fastening the crane to the top of the bridge, allowing additional construction work to be conducted prior to the lift.
“If we had had a bad winter, we would have fallen even further behind, but this meant that we reduced the winter risk to almost zero” concluded Gottschang.
