September 10 - Bergheim, Germany based Wasel has used two LTM 1500-8.1 mobile cranes for an overhead transmission line project on the River Rhine, near Dinslaken.
Wasel used its own 500-tonne capacity 1500-8., and mobilised an identical crane model from Cologne-based crane rental company HKV Schmitz + Partner, to shorten two 138 m tall electricity pylons, so that their mastheads could be rebuilt.
The two cranes had to work in unison, on opposite sides of the river, said Liebherr. Before dismantling the upper crossbeams, the transmission lines were simultaneously detached from both masts and lowered to a height of roughly 50 m, where they were temporarily suspended on the masts' framework. Shipping traffic on the river was completely suspended during this phase of the project.
Over the course of two days industrial climbers and crane crews dismantled the old mastheads and steel framework, before erecting new mastheads standing 100 m tall.
"The corner posts of the masts had significantly more mass than the calculations predicted," said Björn Kröger, project manager at Amprion. "Nevertheless, all lifts proceeded as planned, only the burn-through of the steel structure took more time than expected."
