Six-axle Grove drives 3,350 miles for single job
27 November 2006A team of three crane operators drove a six-axle Grove 6620L 5,400km (3,350 mi) from Beijing, Hebei province, to Lhasa, Tibet, both in China, in only six days.
The crane lifted loads into place in the new Lhasa train station, the new terminus of the first train line to link Lhasa with the rest of mainland China.
China Large Equipment Transport Company received the order only 10 days before the deadline in May 2006. No crane hire company closer to the destination wanted the job, which took the crane to above 5,000m (16,400 ft) in altitude, according to Manitowoc Asia marketing manager Jim Cui.
Project manager Xuanhe Liu and the crane drivers had to refuel, change a tyre, negotiate tolls with agents who had never seen such a crane, and avoid robbers lying in wait by the roadside at night. Otherwise they had no problems with the crane, Cui said.
Although the crane operator, CLETC, owned by Jiancheng Zhu, is primarily a cargo forwarding company, it also runs seven cranes.
