Girder first
06 May 2008
The first job for Spanish crane and transport company Grúas y Transportes Artexte's new Goldhofer girder bridge was to transport a 300 tonne turbine for the new Boroa-Amorebieta combined cycle power plant in the north of Spain.
The new girder bridge owned by Artexte, based in Vizcaya province, has a 350 tonne load capacity and was acquired from Liebherr Ibérica, the Goldhofer dealer in Spain.
The 10 m long, 5.5 m wide and 5.16 m high turbine was a relatively small part of the convoy's total length of 84 m, which consisted of the girder bridge mounted on 28 heavy duty Goldhofer THP/SL modular axles plus a pair of tractor units, each with four axles and 680 hp, one at each end of the convoy. The girder bridge itself was about 36 m long, with a dead weight, including load bearing equipment, of 120 tonnes.
A team of 14 people took the load on a two-day, 40 km journey from Canal de Deusto to Boroa through the city of Bilbao where narrow streets, slopes with 7 % drop, low bridges and handrails had to be negotiated. For loading and unloading or for crossing obstacles, the girder bridge can be lifted or lowered by the stroke length of the hydraulics. Different load widths can be accommodated hydraulically.
The longitudinal beams are designed to be divisible several times, which allows the loading length to be adapted to the load requirements. In addition, the bridge can be uncoupled for loading and unloading and can be moved using two auxiliary bogies. The high girder bridge can take a payload from the ground and load it, without needing a crane, which saves time and money.
Artexte, a leading transport company in Spain, has more than 60 lines of Goldhofer modular axles less than than six years old, and other special equipment, including low beds, vessel bridges and wind turbine transport equipment