Contractors building a new terminal at Dortmund airport are using nine Liebherr tower cranes, including five EC-B models, which are of torsion beam/cantilever arm jib design – or flat-top.
With radar systems for aircraft approaches needing to be taken into account, high-voltage power lines overhead, and cranes having intersecting slewing circles, using trolley jib cranes without tower heads was an ideal solution, Liebherr says.
The flat-top models used are a 112 EC-B on a foundation anchor, two 180 EC-Bs on foundation anchors, and two 180 EC-Bs on rails. Also on site are a 112 EC-H (a conventional top slewing crane with tower head and jib guying) and three fast-erectors: a 35K, a 50K and a 63K.
The terminal building, together with a three-storey underground car park and various ancillary buildings are being constructed by a consortium of Franz Brüggemann, Karl Hitzbleck and Bergfort. The four-storey terminal buiding will be 425m long and up to 108m wide. The car park is 325m by 37m. Over the entire project the cranes will move most of the 2,300t of structural and reinforcing steel and 40,000m3 of concrete that is being used.
Liebherr says that a benefit of its EC-B cranes is that they are integrated with Liebherr’s modular system. The only difference between the EC-B and the conventional EC-H cranes is the modified steel structure from the slewing platform upwards.
The modular element system means that a basic unit can be combined and added to in various ways. EC-B cranes always operate double-reeved. The entire drive and control technology is the same as on the more established EC-H series.
EC-B towers were also used on the Deutscher Industrie- und Handelstag building in Berlin alongside EC-H towers. Flat-top towers were selected so that the working heights of the other towers on site could be kept lower.
