Liebherr LTM 1300-6.2 mobile crane hoists boat onto Eiffel Tower gallery

It has made many of the visitors to the Eiffel Tower in Paris in April or May rub their eyes in wonder. A large regatta boat has been advertising a good cause for the last two months on the so-called gallery, the first storey of the structure at a height of around 60 metres. It is for a French doctors' initiative which provides heart operations for children throughout the world. However, very few of the stunned tourists would guess at how the boat, measuring 18 metres in length and six metres in width, made its way onto the Eiffel Tower.

A Liebherr LTM 1300-6.2 mobile crane operated by French crane contractor S.E Levage positioned the sailing boat, certainly without its mast and sail, on the lattice tower in a spectacular hoist during the night. The assembly work on the 300-tonne crane, which had been prepared with ballast and a lattice jib, started whilst the numerous visitors were still sauntering around at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. However, the crane was not positioned as first planned in the centre between the four massive tower legs but on the road bordering the Champ de Mars, the Avenue Gustave Eiffel.

Wind caused a change of plan

Wind turbulence between the piers of the 300-metre monument meant that the original plan, to hoist the boat through the inside of the Eiffel Tower to the first storey, was impossible. In consequence the crane had to be moved. In view of the high lifting capacity of the LTM 1300-6.2, the 20 percent additional radius for the five-tonne boat resulting from the new site for the crane to the side of the structure, did not pose a massive challenge. As the hook of the mobile crane slowly moved upwards well after midnight, company boss Eric Salvi and his team had their hands full securing the boat and holding it stable as the wind gusted around it. The team from S.E Levage nevertheless, completed the job perfectly and positioned the advertisement in perfect condition on the gallery of the "Tour Eiffel".

French crane and transport contractor S.E Levage, based in Sallenoves, twenty kilometres south-west of Geneva, is primarily active in the Rhône-Alpes region which stretches from Lyon to the Swiss and Italian border. The crane fleet of S.E. Levage consists mainly of Liebherr cranes. Last year the company purchased an LTM 11200-9.1 mobile crane which is the most powerful crane of the crane pool now.