Sarens has lifted a pedestrian and cyclist path into place in Albi, France, which runs along a 19th century railway viaduct on the Tarn River.
For its client Maeg Costruzioni SpA, Sarens had to install nine sections within two weeks, whilst having to transport the main lifting crane – fully disassembled – along a narrow section of the Tarn River, including passing through a tight lock. Sarens opted to move the CC1500 lifting crane along the Tarn River on narrow barges, before handing off bridge components to a Sarens modular barge for installation.
The CC1500 crane was transported piece by piece from the Netherlands by narrow transport barge. The narrowness of these barges coupled with the tightness of the lock along the route meant that stability was of paramount importance when transporting the crane’s parts. The CC1500 was chosen as it had to be strong enough to lift each bridge section yet light enough to avoid over-submerging the barge.
Along with the barges, Sarens used 11 trucks to transport the remaining CC1500 components, 37 trucks for the company’s main modular barge, and eight trucks for the rented narrow barges. It took 10 days for the rigging team to assemble the main barge and then the crane with a 54 m main boom. Once on location, the crane was driven onto the main barge after it had been reconfigured so that it was wide enough.
The CC1500 lifted and installed all nine bridge sections to a 30 m height, slewing and crawling all along the barge to install each load – which each weight up to 50 tonnes and measured 32 m in radius.
Sarens recently completed the assembly of two harbour cranes in Genk, Belgium.
