Austrian bridge crane manufacturer Hans Künz has been awarded a contract to supply two container bridges for the construction of a new container terminal in Lübeck on the river Trave in northern Germany.
The 80m span and 44m high cranes are the largest gantry cranes that Künz has ever produced and will be used to transfer containers between freight trains and ships arriving at the terminal.
Terminal operator Combispeed is adopting a new type of intermodal concept using the cranes to load and unload ships at the same time. There is no room to set the containers down except directly onto either trains or ship.
The gantry cranes span 16 rail trucks and each has a gross weight of approximately 480t.
As the terminal is in a residential area, the cranes have a sound output of 90dBA in operation to allow transhipment operations to be carried out at night.
Commissioning of the first crane is scheduled for January 2002.
