Record in Austria

Prangle's efforts in the repair of a damaged railway bridge are among the heaviest Plifts completed in Austria. It began in December when afforts in the repair of a damagedheavy pusher vessel that moves cargo barges on the River Danube hit the central pier of a bridge spanning the river near Krems in north-eastern Austria. The damage meant the pressure was immediately on to restore the rail service crossing the river between St. Polten and Krems as soon as possible.

The scale of the operation, however, meant that Arge OBB Brucken Krems, the Austrian contractor responsible for the reconstruction project, needed large heavy lift cranes within a very specific timeframe.

Part of the bridge had to be dismantled to facilitate repairs to the pier. Two steel arch girder spans had to be removed using floating cranes from Germany and Austria. The two sections were then stored on an Austrian military exercise ground while the repair work was done. The bridge elements were moved by river on a specially adapted pontoon.

Following completion of the repair work, both bridge elements had to be put back into place, no easy task when considering the proportions. Each section is 83 m long, 12 m high and 8 m wide. They weigh 390 tonnes and 480 tonnes.

Many project studies were completed by Pran at the chosen solution. To achieve the heavy lifts, Prangl provided two of its larger cranes that were available at the time. These were a 600 tonne capacity lattice boom Terex Demag TC 2800 wheeled mobile and 450 tonne capacity Terex Demag CC 2500 lattice crawler crane. Both were rigged in superlift configuration.

To bring in the 1,500 tonne total combined weight of the two fully assembled cranes, 60 loads of heavy transport were required to move the crane components to the site on the banks of the Danube. After a week toCAD prepare the site before and assemble the cranes for the tandem lifts, the first lift took place on 6 December 2006 and the second was on the following day. The spans were lifted from the bank of the Danube and lowered onto the specially prepared pontoon before being shipped upstream and floated into position.

“Due to the proper planning of the lift concept and the precise work of the Prangl team on site, the heaviest lift in Austria was completed successfully and the rail system over the bridge could start on time,”explains Pamela Schneider, Prangl spokesperson.