A major showpiece for the new Madrid to Barcelona high speed railway will be the huge Delicias Intermodal Station complex at Zaragoza, a key industrial city in Spain. The city, more than 400km north of the capital, is the end point for the first phase opening of the 350km/hr line next year. The full 850km line opens in 2004. Zaragoza’s E 163m station features huge steel bowstring trusses to support the central station roof area springing from a complex of two hotels, a business office centre and an energy supply plant, currently rising high along the eastern side of the site. Work on the first phase of this project includes moving 250,000m3 of concrete, 6,000t of reinforcement steel and 25,000t of structural steel. Much of it is handled by seven Liebherr 63LC top slewing tower cranes fitted with 36.2m jibs. Hook heights on three of the cranes are 48m and on the others 44m. Foundation anchors support two of the taller cranes and X pattern bases the remainder. Quadruple reeving enables the cranes to lift 5,000kg, or for more site coverage they can manage 1,000kg on the end of the jib using double reeving. The cranes, owned by contracting consortium UTE Delicias Zaragoza, have slipring motors and fluid coupling.
