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Feeling Right at Home: Terex® Superlift 3800 Lattice Boom Crawler Crane Lifts Concrete Bridge in Zweibrücken
ZWEIBRÜCKEN, Germany , September 15th, 2015 – It would be virtually impossible to come up with a more cost-effective first project: After picking up a brand new Terex Superlift 3800 lattice boom crawler crane, the fifth unit of the model in the company’s fleet, Trier-based Steil had it taken from the Terex factory in the small Palatinate town of Zweibrücken straight to its first work site at a residential area in the very same town. There, on behalf of the local utility, the Superlift 3800 crane lifted a 78-tonne concrete bridge that spanned the picturesque Schwarzbach river and joined what used to be two towpaths from the days before river boats started using engines.
The residents of Zweibrücken are used to seeing large cranes – after all, the town is a manufacturing location for Terex crawler and mobile cranes. However, seeing a colossus in action practically in front of their living rooms was another thing altogether. “The residents were very easygoing about it and were even extraordinarily friendly and helpful when they had to move their cars out of the crane’s way so it could do its work,” reports Branch Manager Klaus-Michael Speicher, who works at the Steil branch that was in charge of the lift – Steil Saarwellingen.
Ultimately, the people of Zweibrücken were treated to an exciting spectacle: On April 14, 2015, the Superlift 3800 crane’s first components left the Terex factory premises and started their short trip to the work site. To get to the site, the trucks had to move through the relatively narrow streets in the residential area, which required organizational skills and precision from the Steil team. “The access road to the bridge was particularly challenging. It was like going through the eye of a needle. We had to plan everything down to the very last detail and figure out when each component had to be delivered to the work site,” explains René Perlich, who is the leader of the Large Cranes Team at Steil’s headquarters in Trier and took over project management duties on the day of the lift.
The extremely limited space that was available was one reason why the company decided on using the Superlift 3800 crane for the project: On one hand, the unit’s compact design helped it fit the tight work area. “On the other, the crane’s components are sized in such a way that they make it possible to maneuver even through narrow roads,” explains Terex Cranes Crane Handover Manager Thomas Beduhn, who assisted the Steil team during the project. Thanks to the unit’s ease of assembly and the help of a Terex AC 200-1 all terrain crane, setting up the Superlift 3800 crane proved to be as easy as expected – within the scheduled timeframe of only three days. The crane was ready to lift the bridge after being configured with a main boom length of 42 meters, 253-tonnes of counterweight, and 50-tonnes of central ballast.
Extensive preparations
the special conditions at the site meant expensive preparations prior to the lift. The bridge had large supply pipes running through it, making it necessary to cut them in advance. The pipes were then temporarily placed across the river with the use of a lattice framework structure so that they could keep doing their job until a new bridge was put in place. In addition, the concrete bridge featured massive reinforcements that also had to be cut through and that made it difficult to calculate the exact weight of the bridge before the lift. “That was another reason why we decided on the Superlift 3800 crane: namely the fact that it would have plenty of reserve capacity,” explains Project Manager Daniel Gödert, who works at Steil’s Saarwellingen branch.
The team carried out a trial lift the previous evening so that there wouldn’t be any surprises during the lift on April 17. To do this, the team made core drill holes through the bridge and threaded hoist cables through them. “The reason this was necessary was that we couldn’t determine the bridge’s exact weight in advance, so there was basically no way we’d be able to balance it perfectly,” explains crane operator Thomas Klinger. In fact, the load’s actual weight was determined during the trial lift: at 78 tonnes, it was only four tonnes heavier than calculated – not a problem for the Superlift 3800 crane.
In the blink of an eye: a routine lift in 15 minutes
Once all the preparations were complete, there was nothing else standing in the way of the actual lift on the next day: The team rigged the bridge again and the Superlift 3800 crane lifted the concrete structure to the required height of 10 meters at a working radius of 27 meters. The crane then moved back 4 meters while under load and shortened its working radius by lifting the boom by 1 meter, 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 neighboring meadow. Thanks to the perfect preparation work carried out beforehand, the entire lift ended up being a simple matter of routine that took a mere 15 minutes. The crane was also disassembled quickly, with the whole process taking only one day.
“This lift just confirmed once again that the Superlift 3800 is an incredibly versatile crane that enables us to respond to an extremely wide variety of demanding requirements with utmost flexibility,” points out Perlich, whose company will soon be back in Zweibrücken to pick up yet another Superlift 3800 crane from Terex Cranes, bringing Steil GmbH’s Superlift 3800 cranes count to a total of six units.
For more information about the crane, please visit the following page: Superlift 3800
About Steil Kranarbeiten GmbH & Co. KG
“Heavy things made light” – this is the slogan behind Steil Kranarbeiten’s comprehensive range of services. The company, which is certified as per DIN EN ISO 9001:2000 and Safety Certificate Contractors (SCC) standards, relies on a highly specialized fleet with state-of-the-art machines, as well as a highly-qualified team. Its services include not only special-purpose crane work for weights of up to 800 tonnes and heavy haulage services, but also recovery and towing services for trucks and buses and industrial and company relocation services. The company is headquartered in Trier, and additional Steil branches are located in Wittlich and Saarwellingen in Germany, as well as in Frisange in Luxembourg.
The company’s customer base includes well-known companies such as the Bitburger brewery, BASF, Saarstahl, Deutsche Steinkohle, Dillinger Hütte, and all important wind turbine manufacturers.
For more information, please visit www.steil-kranarbeiten.de
About Terex
Terex Corporation is a lifting and material handling solutions company reporting in five business segments: Aerial Work Platforms, Construction, Cranes, Material Handling & Port Solutions and Materials Processing. Terex manufactures a broad range of equipment serving customers in various industries, including the construction, infrastructure, manufacturing, shipping, transportation, refining, energy, utility, quarrying and mining industries. Terex offers financial products and services to assist in the acquisition of Terex equipment through Terex Financial Services. Terex uses its website (www.terex.com) and Facebook page (www.facebook.com/TerexCorporation) to make information available to its investors and the market.
