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Crane lifts in bridge structure in Germany

A Terex crawler crane has been used to lift out a concrete bridge in the German town of Zweibrücken. The work was carried out shortly after the Terex Superlift 3800 lattice boom crawler crane had been supplied to Trier-based specialist Steil. The crane hire firm already had four Terex crawler cranes in its fleet with this new arrival bringing the number to five. The machine had a particularly short journey to make to the job site as it had just been manufacturerd at the Terex facility located in Zweibrü
December 14, 2015 Read time: 3 mins
Terex crawler crane
A Terex crawler crane was used to lift a concrete bridge in Zweibrücken
A 1222 Terex crawler crane has been used to lift out a concrete bridge in the German town of Zweibrücken. The work was carried out shortly after the Terex Superlift 3800 lattice boom crawler crane had been supplied to Trier-based specialist Steil.

The crane hire firm already had four Terex crawler cranes in its fleet with this new arrival bringing the number to five. The machine had a particularly short journey to make to the job site as it had just been manufacturerd at the Terex facility located in Zweibrücken.

The Superlift 3800 crane was used to lift a 78tonne concrete bridge that spanned the picturesque Schwarzbach River. Despite the crane’s capacity, it is also highly manoeuvrable, a feature that came in useful given the tight access to the working area.

A Terex AC 200-1 all-terrain crane was used to help with the setting up of the Superlift 3800 crawler crane. For the job the crane was configured with a 42m main boom, 253tonnes of counterweight and 50tonnes of central ballast.

Extensive preparation work was carried out prior to the lift. The bridge had large supply pipes running through it, which had to be cut in advance. The pipes were placed temporarily across the river with support from a lattice framework structure until a new bridge was put in place.

The concrete bridge also featured massive reinforcements that had to be cut through. The configuration of the bridge made it difficult to estimate its weight accurately but when the lift work commenced, it became apparent the structure was only 4tonnes heavier than had been predicted and this was well within the capabilities of the crane. The team carried out a trial lift the evening before the actual job to ensure that the crane configuration was suitable. This required core drilling holes through the bridge and then threading hoist cables through.

Once the equipment had been prepared, the actual lift was carried out and this took just 15 minutes. The Superlift 3800 crane lifted the concrete structure to the required height of 10m at a working radius of 27m. The crane then moved back 4m while under load and shortened its working radius by lifting the boom by 1m, so that the bridge would not hit any of the trees close by when being swung away. Finally, the crane operator set the concrete bridge down on a neighbouring meadow and the lifting work took just 15 minutes. The crane was also disassembled quickly, with the whole process taking only one day.

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