The Moselle, 384 km of which is navigable, is not only known for its scenic attractions and excellent vineyards. Since December 8, 2024, it has also made headlines in terms of inland shipping and logistics. When an inland waterway vessel severely damaged the Müden lock due to a drive failure.
As a result, 74 ships were unable to continue their journey, just before Christmas. The WSA Mosel-Saar-Lahn solved the problem with its long-standing crane partner Steil Kranarbeiten GmbH & Co. KG from Trier, who immediately ordered an LTM 1200-5.1 to the Müden lock. The LTM 1650-8.1 had already recovered the damaged gate. With the help of a so-called "dam beam", which are simple steel segments that are inserted into the locks during maintenance work, the Liebherr 200-tonne crane was able to perform an emergency lockage. The Steil team was working around the clock and all the bargemen were actually with their families for Christmas.
As a result, the lock was closed and, as Ulrich Zwinge from WSA Mosel-Saar-Lahn emphasizes, a so-called replacement gate was refurbished to fit. Replacement gates are kept in stock in Trier, which are adapted with hydraulic and electrical equipment depending on their use in the special lock. This work began immediately. The two gates for the Müden lock were completed in a record time of just seven weeks.
Gate leaves weighing 45 tons installed
On January 24, 2025, the time had come. Steil arrived with the "big equipment", the eight-axle Liebherr LTM 1650-8.1 with a 52 m boom, which was working in a wind farm a few kilometres from Müden. The logistics on site were complicated. The two 45-tonne gate wings were transported to the top of the lock on a WSV push unit and loaded onto a five-axle platform trailer by a 220-tonne crane.
The articulated lorry then reversed 200 meters to the installation site, where the LTM 1650-8.1 first set up the gate from horizontal to vertical and then lifted it into the installation position. The gate had to be held there until the neck bearings were connected. With a radius of 18.5 m, this was no real challenge for the yellow muscleman. The mobile crane was equipped with 75 tonnes of ballast and the four-tonne hook block was reeved five times. Crane operator Torsten Schneider was able to direct the machine to the site as quickly as possible because work was being carried out on a wind farm in the immediate vicinity and the LTM 1650-8.1 was therefore available at short notice. Schneider praises his machine as a crane that is particularly easy to set up and can be used quickly even in confined spaces.
Various equipment features prompted the management team consisting of Birgit and Christopher Steil and Daniel Gödert to purchase two of these cranes. One is the VarioBase® variable support base, which allows the crane to be operated safely even in very confined spaces and also to achieve very high lifting capacities. Just as important is the VarioBallast® for flexible ballasting in difficult spatial situations.
There was no shortage of space at the Müden lock, so the maximum support base of 10,531 x 9,578 mm was used. Nevertheless, setting up the 96-tonne monster was challenging, as all the counterweights had to be "passed" over the front of the crane, which extended the set-up time to 3.5 hours. "Normally," says Torsten Schröder, "the crane is ready to lift in 1.5 hours."
In the end, the two lifts, including all the ancillary work, were completed by midday and the Steil team was able to set off for the weekend. Ulrich Zwinge from the WSA estimates another week for fine-tuning and programming in Müden. The Müden lock went back into regular operation at the end of the first week of February. Incidentally, the crane operation even made it into the daily news.
