Press releases | 06/05/2019 Two Liebherr LTM 1500-8.1 mobile cranes dismantle 100-year-old bridge

  • LTM 1500-8.1 from Schares and Flossdorf complete tandem hoist
  • The challenge was that the weight of the old bridge was unknown

Two Liebherr LTM 1500-8.1 mobile cranes from crane and heavy haulage contractors Autokrane Schares GmbH from Bocholt and Dietmar Flossdorf GmbH from Bad Neuenahr recently dismantled a 100-year-old railway bridge in Essen. The two 500-tonne cranes had to lift 120 tonnes of steel in a tandem hoist.

On the hooks – the crane operators carefully manoeuvred the massive steel structure between the two booms.

Single image, web (198 KB)

On the ground – the mobile cranes have completed their work. Then the flame cutters had to go back to work.

Single image, web (209 KB)

The steel bridge over a 4-lane road has been part of Essen’s cityscape for 100 years. But the time had come for the ailing structure to be removed for new buildings. The great age of the bridge proved to be a challenge for planning the crane job, however, because there were no reliable figures for the precise weight of the structure.

After detailed advanced planning by external service executive Peter Voss and technical drawer Nicole Bröker, main contractor Schares decided to use two LTM 1500-8.1 cranes for the job, as they provided plenty of lifting capacity reserves. One of them came from its own fleet based in Bocholt, whilst the other was provided by Flossdorf, based in Bad Neuenahr, around 130 kilometres from Essen. The cranes were prepared with 135 tonnes of ballast and their telescopic booms were each extended to 31.7 metres. The bridge had to be hoisted with a radius of up to 16 metres. It had first been released from the abutments by flame cutters. The heavy duty cranes hoisted the structure with ease. The crane control systems showed that they were sharing a weight of 120 tonnes. The LTM 1500-8.1 cranes had plenty of reserves without having to install any telescopic boom guying.

Crane operators Bernd Janssen (Schares) and Thorsten Mahlberg (Flossdorf) manoeuvred the bridge as instructed by marshal Dominik Ussat (Schares) carefully between the two 8-axle cranes and placed it on the ground. Then it was time for the flame cutters to go back to work. The steel structure was removed once it had been cut into small parts.

Downloads

Here you will find the press release and images for download.

Press Information English PDF (22 KB)
Presseinformation Deutsch PDF (23 KB)

Contact

Wolfgang Beringer

Marketing and Communication


Liebherr-Werk Ehingen GmbH

Dr.-Hans-Liebherr-Straße 1

89584 Ehingen

Germany