LR 11000 used in Switzerland

26 June 2017 by Sotiris Kanaris

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Emil Egger, a transport and heavy haulage contractor based in Sankt Gallen, has been operating a Liebherr LR11000 crawler crane for several weeks.

The crane was recently supplied from the plant in Ehingen for its first job in Zurich.  The 1,000t crane has been booked for around six months with the task of assembling reinforced concrete supports up to almost 60t and façade components weighing 90t on the construction site. Many of the reinforced concrete supports have to be mounted at a 60m distance.

Liebherr says that this is the first time a Swiss company has owned a crane of 1,000t capacity. It is also Egger’s first crawler.  Up until now, the company's long-standing crane fleet solely comprised mobile cranes.

The ballast system VarioTray, a detachable ballast plate for the crane’s derrick boom, is being used in this project. If the entire counterweight is not required for a lift, a centre section of the suspended ballast weighing up to 160t can be bolted out and used separately.

“This innovation is ideal for the construction site in Zurich, as the LR 11000 needs to lift supports with weights from 25–58t alternately over very small or also very large distances. For the heavy components and large radius, the derrick ballast plate is simply bolted on before luffing down the boom,” said Liebherr.

The company initially considered a crane with ballast trailer for this order, but the ground pressure would have been much higher below its wheels than underneath a conventional crane.