Austrian container handling crane manufacturer Künz commissioned German crane rental, sales and service specialist BKL Baukran Logistik to help install a large gantry crane weighing a total of 360 tonnes.
The trimodal gantry crane is for container transshipment and is now located at a container terminal in the west of Frankfurt owned by Contargo Industriepark Frankfurt-Höchst. The work was part of the terminal’s expansion.
To carry out the project BKL used five telescopic cranes of different classes: a 230-tonne LTM 1230-5.1 mobile crane; a 250-tonne GMK5250XL-1 all-terrain crane; a 300-tonne LTM 1300-6.2; and two 450-tonne all-terrain cranes – one LTM 1450-8.1 and one GMK6450-1.
A key challenge was that the busy container terminal had to keep on operating whilst the gantry crane was being installed. Because of this BKL’s Frankfurt division used CAD planning to ensure that the cranes were setup in such a way that didn’t disrupt road or rail operations at the terminal.
In addition, due to the gantry crane’s installation location on a quay next to a river BKL had to take the stability of the quay wall into account to ensure its structural integrity. Due to this the mobile cranes had to be positioned in such a way that their load distribution plates were placed on a few, specifically selected points.
A further complication was that due to space limitations both the setup and activity of the five mobile cranes had to be carefully planned.
When it came to the lifting, three cranes first lifted the 140-tonne main girder at its three anchor points to a height of 40 metres. The cranes involved in this were the LTM 1450-8.1 with luffing jib on one side, paired with a GMK6450-1 and an LTM 1230-5.1 on the other side.
At the same time the LTM 1300-6.2 and GMK5250XL-1 placed the 17-tonne supports for the gantry crane in the designated position on the water side.
The LTM 1300-6.2 stood directly behind the LTM 1450-8.1 during the lift, manoeuvring the support into its final position by reaching past the 450-tonne mobile crane.
To position the two supports on the shore side, the BKL team then moved the 250-tonne and 300-tonne cranes within the installation area.
Thanks to thorough advance planning and close coordination between the BKL team on site, the operation went like smoothly and Künz was able to install the gantry crane on schedule.
