It took a year of planning before Austrian firm Felbermayr could move and lift a 400t reactor in November 2004. In the end, Felbermayr used a Liebherr LR 1750 crawler to lift a 400t reactor vessel and set it down on a 19m high concrete stand. The tail end of the 36m long, 10m diameter vessel was picked up with a Liebherr LTM G 1800 truck-mounted lattice-boom crane.
The lift was just the final stage in a 10km journey. Picked off a barge on the Danube by the LR 1750, the reactor travelled by road to the petrochemical refinery of customer Borealis in Schwechat, Austria, near Vienna. Felbermayr custom-widened a two 12-axle low loader assemblies to a width of 4.9m to help spread the load. Each was fitted with a turntable to help improve manoeuvrability. Even so, bridges along the way had to be reinforced.
For the final lift, the LR 1750 was fitted with 56m of main boom, 42m of derrick boom, 14m of jib, and had 360t of counterweight on a ballast car at 20m radius and 220t of counterweight on the carbody.
The LTM G 1800 had 35m of main boom, 31m of derrick mast, 160t of counterweight on the carbody and 70t on a wagon and had an 11m by 11m outrigger spread.
