Jekko on barge lifts bridge

Among the most challenging is the construction of a pedestrian and cycle bridge over Riddarfjärden bay.

 Five-ton blocks make up the structure of the bridge; installing them therefore called for a machine with high lifting capacity. Great outreach was also required. One possible option was the use of a large mobile crane, to be operated from the nearby road bridge. But that bridge connects the islands in central Stockholm and is extremely important for traffic flow, which meant that crane work from it could have been done only at night, making a very expensive and time-consuming solution.

Wilgo AB, a transportation and lifting company based in Gothenburg, offered a better solution: instead of a large crane they proposed a very small one: a Jekko JF545 crawler minicrane, which was operated from a scow, a harbour barge. It was mounted, using its stabilisers, on the barge for ten weeks and carried out all lift and handling operations from the boat.

The JF545 is a self-propelled tracked minicrane with a 15.5t capacity and a reach of 25m.

“From our perspective, the main advantages of JF545 are the compact dimensions, the high lifting capacity considering its weight and the possibility of working with no emissions when using the additional power pack” said Joacim Göransson, owner of Wilgo AB. “When operating with the electric engine the crane is very silent and this improves the working environment tremendously.” For more on Jekko electric power see the following news item.

“Last but not least the stabilisation system is very handy when there is not a lot of space – as was the case on the scow” says Göransson. “In unloading the bridge structure pieces from its barge the machine was also priceless;  if the Jekko hadn’t been on site the only way to unload the elements would have been using a mobile crane. This way the contractors were able to save a lot of money and time”.

“We invested in the Jekko in late 2019 because we saw an opportunity for that kind of machine in Gothenburg. Our JF545 was the first crawler crane in the area and the city was investing in big infrastructure projects. Thanks to this model we could expand our working area and become experts in lifting in narrow spaces: with it we do all kinds of lifting in confined areas, for example in courtyards, in tunnels and below the ground level, and, as here, on scows.”

The bridge project will be completed this summer.