Liebherr Crawler Crane exchanges Railway Bridges

New LR 1600/2 belonging to Breuer &Wasel goes into action for the first time. On its very first operational commitment, the Liebherr- LR 1600/2 operated by Breuer &Wasel achieved an amazing performance result, lifting a railway bridge weighing 454 tonnes into its future location.

At Hurth-Fischenich, near Cologne, two railway lines cross one another. The bridge carrying one of these lines dated from as far back as 1903, and, because of its age, it needed to be replaced, which involved lifting it out in several segments. The work was carried out mostly at night, in order to minimize disruption to railway traffic.

The Liebherr LR 1600/2 crawler crane was equipped with a main boom 42 metres long, and a derrick boom. The superstructure was provided with 150 tonnes of ballast, the central ballast weighing 65 tonnes and the derrick ballast 320 tonnes. This crane configuration was necessary because, at 454 tonnes, the new bridge was not only extremely heavy but also measured an impressive 46 metres in length. It was deposited on the pre-assembly area, raised, and then slewed through 180°. The Liebherr heavy-lift crane, with the total load of 475 tonnes, then travelled 20 metres towards the final location. Once there the bridge was lifted into its final position, right on time in accordance with the planned schedule, with a reach of 17 metres onto the bridge abutments.

The new LR 1600/2 is an impressive supplement to the existing crawler crane set of five Liebherr cranes, which already includes aLiebherr LR 1600/2. As well as this, 80 % of the crane fleet of 115 mobile cranes also come from Liebherr, and Breuer &Waseladditionally operate 340 Liebherr tower cranes. With a workforce of some 300 people, the company is already in the second generation of family ownership, operating across the whole of Europe in the sector of crane hire and heavy load logistics.

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