Press releases | 27/10/2025

New underground railway: Liebherr’s LB 55 drills through Munich

For a technically demanding construction site in the centre of Munich, the Max Bögl Group is relying on Liebherr’s most powerful drilling rig. The LB 55 was specially designed for large-dimensioned bored piles, such as those required for the extension of the U5 underground railway line. Liebherr recently handed over the keys for the new LB 55 to its long-standing customer at Bauma.

The extension of the U5 underground line from Laimer Platz to Pasing is an important infrastructure project for Munich. The large dimensions of the pile foundations for three new railway stations, starting shafts and sealing blocks make the construction very challenging. Max Bögl is using the Liebherr LB 55 drilling rig with the Kelly drilling method to install a total of 1,400 cast-in-place secant piles with a diameter of up to 1,500 millimetres and a depth of down to 50 metres. With 550 kilonewton-metres, the rotary drive delivers the necessary torque for the application.

“We decided in favour of the LB 55 due to its outstanding performance. It is flexible and can be assembled and disassembled quickly. It makes our daily work on the jobsite much easier, especially when installing bored piles with large dimensions. The new machine enables us to complete even demanding jobsites efficiently and reliably,” says Robert Geitner from the deep foundation fleet department at Max Bögl. The Liebherr customer service, which quickly implements service requests or suggestions for improvement, is also important to the company.

Greater depths with Kelly drilling: LB 55 impresses with more power

With the LB 55, Liebherr has significantly improved the performance data compared to the predecessor model LB 44. With an optional larger drilling axis, the new model can create piles with a diameter of 3,000 millimetres for cased applications and 4,800 millimetres for uncased boreholes. With Kelly drilling, drilling depths of up to 120 metres are now possible – an increase of 25 metres. The largest drilling rig in the LB series is powered by an engine output of 565 kilowatts, which is an increase of 70 kilowatts compared to the previous model. With these performance data, the LB 55 is the perfect choice for applications with large drilling dimensions.

For decades, the Max Bögl Group has enjoyed a partnership with Liebherr that is characterised by reliability, flexibility and innovation. The implementation of these values is particularly important in challenging construction site operations such as the one in Munich. The LB 55 fulfils the highest requirements in terms of performance, precision and sustainability thanks to its wide range of applications using various drilling methods – Kelly, continuous flight auger or full displacement – and its compact transport weight as well as modern assistance systems to increase efficiency.