The airport in Santiago de Chile is expanding its position as a key hub airport for South America. The operators are extending the site to 265,000m² and have commissioned the construction of another terminal. Once finished, the airport will increase its total capacity to 30 million passengers/year, more than doubling its present number. There will be 67 passenger bridges in total, including the 18 already in use. In addition, capacity for vehicle parking will double.
Liebherr Chile has already erected seven 250 EC-B 12 Litronic, four 150 EC-B 8 Litronic cranes and one 280 EC-H 16 Litronic crane. Six cranes from the Chilean dealer Maquinarias Cruz del Sur are also in use: one 280 EC-H 12 Litronic, two 200 EC-H 10 Litronic and three 90 EC-B cranes. The 18 tower cranes have a jib length of 45-60m; they have been working on the construction site, since the end of 2016, with much of the work now completed.
More Liebherr tower cranes will follow for the construction of the multi-storey car parks; three 110 EC-B 6 and two 154 EC-H cranes.
The location of a Liebherr branch in Santiago was a key factor for the Vinci-Astaldi consortium. In addition to the Liebherr tower cranes from its own fleet, the dealer Maquinarias Cruz del Sur is providing assembly, service and crane operators for all cranes.
The Liebherr Tower Cranes Solutions project department has provided the consortium with guidance for planning the most economical coverage of the construction site.
In airport construction, the permitted crane heights are very limited. In order to work with several cranes in tight spaces, the technicians mounted a Flat-Top 250 EC-B 12 Litronic crane on rails to build one of the terminals. This allows the crane to cover a large area, while it can also be moved to a position where it can slew freely. As a safety measure, all cranes are equipped with an anti-collision system from French manufacturer AMCS.
