Liebherr MK 140 mobile construction crane: Window installation in heavy railway station traffic in Bruges, Belgium

Bruges station is the main station in Bruges and one of the busiest railway stations in Belgium. A new window pane was required there.

The mobile construction crane was driven into position and assembled itself within one hour - without any wide-ranging cordoning.

The mobile construction crane was driven into position and assembled itself within one hour - without any wide-ranging cordoning.

The conditions for this job were far from straightforward. The railway building is around 25 metres high and the window had to be installed at the rear of the building in the immediate vicinity of the tracks. That meant our MK 140 mobile construction crane was the best tool for the job.

The projecting edge of 25 metres and the required radius of 63 metres were both child's play for it since the MK 140 achieves a hook height of 39.9 metres with a horizontal jib and has a radius of 65.0 metres in luffing mode.

So the 5-axle mobile construction crane was driven into position on the square in front of the station whilst the station operations continued and assembled itself within one hour – without any wide-ranging cordoning so as not to affect the flow of visitors and passengers.

The MK 140 easily managed to hoist the window pane including its transport frame with a total weight of 700 kilograms.

The MK 140 easily managed to hoist the window pane including its transport frame with a total weight of 700 kilograms.

The MK 140 easily managed to hoist the window pane including its transport frame with a total weight of 700 kilograms.

In luffing mode the crane easily managed to hoist the window pane including its transport frame with a total weight of 700 kilograms. The window pane was then positioned with millimetre precision using Micromove and radio-control.

"We could have carried out this special job with a different mobile crane system. However, the whole thing would then have taken two days instead of three hours and would have been much more expensive. Furthermore, it would not have been possible to do the job without wide-ranging cordoning", says Jean-Pierre Gheysens, Managing Director of crane rental company Gheysens.