Challenge – Saller’s Liebherr cranes complete difficult bridge hoist at night

It was really tight – there was only around twenty centimetres between the telescopic boom of the more powerful Liebherr mobile crane and the ropes on the telescope guying of the LTM 1400/1 when the cranes’ superstructures reached the trickiest moment of the complex slewing process . But this almost-contact had been precisely planned as such in advance. “Normally we would have hoisted the load with just one crane and an adjustable yoke, but the customer insisted that the work should be carried out using two cranes”, explained Klaus Ruhland, who completed the calculations for the tandem hoist together with Dennis Kase.

Because the LTM 1750-9.1 had to reach over the smaller crane and its boom to pick up the load, the massive nine-axle machine was set up with a 35 metre luffing jib and its telescopic boom was extended to almost 40 metres for the actual hoist. Managing Director and Head Project Manager Franz X. Saller jun. said: “The close positioning of the two cranes was due to the fact that we had to work from the abutment of a road bridge. We were not able to position the cranes on the bridge structure as a result of the support pressures they generate.”

A great deal of manpower and materials were required for the job because the full closure of the rail network for a limited time and the closure of the road for the hoisting and set-up work meant that rapid progress was essential.

But the efficient team from Kran Saller ensured that the work was carried out professionally and that the job was carried out quickly and smoothly during the night in the Bavarian capital. The actual hoisting of the bridge component took exactly one hour, after which it was positioned precisely around 30 metres away on the piers of the future bridge. Immediately after the load had been detached, the team started dismantling their Liebherr cranes so that as day broke, only a few barriers were left as signs that the night had been a busy one.

By then, the equipment for the job was already en route to the company’s headquarters in Deggendorf. The company provides its services to customers well beyond the borders of Bavaria from there and six other sites. In addition to heavy and special haulage, the company has a fleet of around 30 cranes, making crane work one of the core parts of its business.