August 31 - Switzerland-based Feldmann Pneukran + Transport has transported four steel wire ropes for the Bayerische Zugspitzbahn cable car which scales the Zugspitze mountain on the Austria-Germany border.
Each of the four track ropes measured 4,900 m in length, 72 mm in diameter, and had a total weight of 145 tons (131.5 tonnes).
The ropes, which were manufactured by Fatzer AG Wire Ropes in Romanshorn, Switzerland, had to be transported 200 km via Liechtenstein and Austria to the German side of the mountain for installation.
"We started off by having special rope drums made so that the rig could travel along the autobahns," says Marcel Guilbert, manager transport operations at Feldmann. "In view of the very considerable weight of the cargo, for all four trips each rope was divided up between two drums on two vehicles in a push-pull configuration for the full distance of the journey."
The Feldmann team, in collaboration with Goldhofer's design engineers, developed a dedicated wire rope drum bridge, with a payload capacity of 100 tons (90.7 tonnes). According to Guilbert, the bridge design "was perfectly implemented in cooperation with Goldhofer - a unique solution, which has not been built in this form before."
For the configuration of the front transporter with the rope drum bridge, the Feldmann team chose a Goldhofer STHP/ET. On this type of trailer, Goldhofer's pendular axle technology contributes to a maximum axle load of 23 tons (20.9 tonnes). The rear vehicle for the smaller rope drum was provided by Wipfli Transporte.
The overall rig had a length of more than 54 m and weight of 252 tons (228.6 tonnes).
In Schaan, Liechtenstein, the route led through the centre of the village, where a number of road signs had to be taken down to allow the convoy to pass through, while the last leg of the journey included a gradient of over 14 percent.
