Liebherr crawler crane with 1000 tonnes load capacity now strongest lattice boom crane in Switzerland

Procurement of the LR 11000 crawler crane by Emil Egger AG is a novelty in more ways than one. Never before has a Swiss crane contractor operated a crawler crane with a load capacity of 1000 tonnes. What is more, this is the first time the family company is venturing into the area of crawler cranes. Up until now, the company's long-standing crane fleet has only included mobile cranes.

Emil Egger AG received the order to work on a major new construction project in Zurich; a welcome occasion to inaugurate the new unit. The LR 11000 has been booked for around six months with the task of assembling reinforced concrete supports with up to almost 60 tonnes and later façade components weighing 90 tonnes on the construction site.

VarioTray saves set-up times and assistance crane

A new technical feature lends the crane tremendous advantages for this initial application; the ballast system VarioTray newly developed by Liebherr, a detachable ballast plate for the crane's derrick boom. If the entire counterweight is not required for a lift, a centre section of the suspended ballast weighing up to 160 tonnes can be bolted out and used separately. This innovation is ideal for the construction site in Zurich, as the LR 11000 needs to lift supports with weights from 25 to 58 tonnes alternately over very small or also very large distances. For the heavy components and large radius, the derrick ballast plate is simply bolted on before luffing down the boom.

"The flexible options of the VarioTray entail cost benefits and save a huge amount of time for the otherwise tedious ballast installation and removal", explains Michael Egger, extolling the virtues of the concept. A permanently stationed set-up crane is not required either, an important advantage as this would have been problematic on the limited construction site area in Zurich. "The substrate is so poor here that we had to drive piles more than forty meters into the ground where the crane was to be set up for static reasons", explains Egger. He initially considered a crane with ballast trailer for this order, but the ground pressure would have been much higher below its wheels than underneath a conventional crane. "We would have had to create a concrete plate for several hundred thousand Swiss francs. Use of the VarioTray spared us that difficulty."

Infrastructure projects waiting for the crane

"In our opinion, Liebherr offers the most modern unit with the greatest application variability in this load class – plus good service", sums up Egger when explaining the reason to purchase the product from the Ehingen crane factory. The family company, which he directs jointly with his brother Markus, expects his powerful new purchase to see plenty of use. The LR 11000 is primarily designed for infrastructure projects such as bridge building or for large construction assembly. The crane will possibly be used abroad too for erecting wind turbines.

As a transport enterprise founded in St. Gallen in 1931, Emil Egger AG has been providing crane work and industrial relocations along with modern heavy-duty logistics since the 1950s. Since then, the company has grown continually and is meanwhile represented at nine sites throughout Switzerland. Around 450 employees work for the company at present. The Liebherr crawler crane now purchased extends the load capacity portfolio of the fleet comprising around 30 cranes.