Liebherr crane erects enormous Pegasus statue in Florida

The order for the statue was awarded to the well-known art foundry Strassacker in Süssen. It was only through the decades of experience of Strassacker working with its international partners and specialists that this extraordinary project was actually possible. Stark Ingenieure, an engineering agency based in Ludwigsburg and Miami, a team which specialises in special support structures and one-off engineering projects, was charged with developing the technical design, planning the erection work and producing the wide-ranging complex engineering solutions required for the statue.

An LTM 1400-7.1 operated by Allegiance Crane took on the erection of the various bronze components in Florida. And what a good choice it proved to be, as Michael Stark, owner of Stark Ingenieure and Günter Czasny deputy CEO, report. "Adam Cote, the Manager of Engineering at Allegiance Crane, and his team were extremely professional on the site. We worked extremely well and closely with each other. And the crane produced an absolutely amazing performance. It has a compact design and has excellent setup processes coupled with enormous load capacities which meant we didn't even have to move it between the various hoists. This saved us around half the time which was very important to us."

The LTM 1400-7.1 was equipped with Y-guying and full ballast for this job. The crane set-up was completed entirely by self-assembly. The left wing of the Pegasus was the heaviest single component, weighing in at a massive 58 tonnes. The Liebherr crane had to move this component to a radius of 22.3 metres. This load capacity is excellent for a crane of this class.

"The fantastic support from Liebherr in advance enabled us to plan all the hoists precisely. The service was really great", says Michael Stark. He and his team were able to simulate all the processes in advance using the 3-D data for the LTM 1400-7.1 provided by Liebherr so that they could find the best way of proceeding. They knew about all the problem edges which they managed to bypass or eliminated in advance so that there were no nasty surprises on site.

The massive "Pegasus and Dragon" statue is completed by now. The completion of the theme park is planned for summer 2015. The new statue will then become a magnet for visitors and an eye-catching symbol for a new equestrian spots park which will provide a range of entertainment and leisure facilities. A four-dimensional experience theatre will be installed in the lower section of the statue.

The oldest attraction in Gulfstream Park is a horse racing track which was built in 1939. A number of investments have been made over the last few years in the spaces around the track to make it more attractive. For example a "village" provides a wide range of retail and entertainment facilities to bring both locals and tourists into the park.