There is certainly no room for fear of heights: if you are sitting in Austria’s highest crane, you must not fear looking down. Easier said than done when you are 137 m above the ground. That’s how high the crane is that has been assembled for the construction of the new heat exchanger tower for the Austrian building materials manufacturer Leube in Gartenau/St. Leonhard (Salzburg). It is thus one of the highest cranes in the whole of Europe.
But this is not the only characteristic that makes this crane so special. For example, it grew simultaneously in height with the heat exchanger tower even while in operation. The original height was just 80 m. Since the start of construction it has “climbed” twice, i.e. been extended upwards. For this, the crane had to be braced to the building at two points in order to sufficiently stabilise the crane tower.
It may be a matter of predisposition whether you envy the crane operator who has to climb 280 rungs every day for the view from his cabin 130 m above the ground; but he certainly has an impressive job.
Specifications:
Model: Liebherr 550 EC-H 20 Litronic
Hook height: 123 m
Jib length: 41.50 m
Lifting capacity: 20.0 t
You can find more information about the assembly of cranes and the special safety precautions that must be taken in this respect in the issue 1.2010 of our company magazine INSIDE.
