Capital Equipment News November 2015

LIFTING

TEREX ® TOWER CRANES working at the St. Pauli Landungsbrücken Piers in Hamburg

T he two Terex tower cranes spent about twelve months in view of the world-famous St. Pauli Landungs- brücken Piers in Hamburg while working under unique conditions. “Projects in urban downtown settings are always associated with special challenges, and that’s espe- cially the case when it comes to a big, live- ly city like Hamburg,” explains Proschwitz GmbH General Manager Detlev Proschwitz. The first challenge was the lack of space around the areas where the two Terex tower cranes would be erected. Just getting the cranes from Proschwitz’s headquarters in Trittau to the work site with 13 trucks was a small logistical challenge despite the short distance of 35 km – after all, cramped downtown areas are hardly the natural hab- itat of heavy goods vehicles. Despite this and the limited space conditions at the ac- tual work sites, the Proschwitz team was able to erect the two cranes on time, with each one taking only one day and three assembly technicians. “We didn’t have any more time available anyway, as we had to keep the necessary road closures to a minimum. That’s where the CTT cranes’ ease of erecting really came through for us,” Proschwitz emphasizes. And it is one of the key reasons why his company con- sistently relies on Terex products when it comes to tower cranes: The Proschwitz Group’s rental fleet features a total of over 100 flat top and hammerhead tower cranes – all Terex models. “The feature with the transfer masts that work on both model ranges enables us to use a variety of com- binations and tackle all kinds of challenges in a flexible and cost-effective manner,” Proschwitz says. He mentions Terex's com- petitive prices, and the fact that experience has shown that they keep their value well, as additional points in their favour. The two Terex tower cranes have another feature that make it seem as though the units were destined to work on the project at the Hamburg site – their variable frequency drives, which guarantee low inrush currents, protecting the city grid from unmanageable voltage fluctuations. “If there was one thing we really didn’t want to do, it was to leave the Landungsbrücken Piers without electric- ity,” says Detlev Proschwitz.

ed the CTT 91-5 flat top tower crane free-standing on a C38 cruciform base, and the CTT 161A-8 flat top tower crane on cast-in-place anchors. With a jib length of 40 m and a hook height of 49.5 m, the CTT 161A-8 was perfectly set up to lift construc- tion materials weighing up to 4.15 tonnes from the jib tip. Its maximum lifting capacity was eight tonnes. The CTT 91-5 was set up with a jib length of 30 m and a hook height of 40.8 m. With this setup, it was able to pick up loads of up to 3.3 tonnes. With these configurations, the two Terex tower cranes performed their work smooth- ly and reliably for a total of twelve months, even when exposed to wind and inclement weather. As a result, Construction Manager Robert Friske from Köster AG, the primary contractor on the project, was also com- pletely satisfied with the Terex machines: “The high-pressure deadlines normally in- volved in this type of construction projects mean that we can’t afford any equipment downtimes. This means that dependable machinery, such as these two tower cranes,

is crucial to a successful project completed on time,” Robert Friske pointed out.

After the work was completed, the cranes needed to be disassembled quickly, as both the port’s anniversary celebration and the Hamburg Marathon were just around the corner. Due to the extremely constrained space conditions, it was not possible to tear down the CTT 91 crane using a mo- bile crane. However, the fact that the tower crane can be easily dismantled into smaller components meant that the CTT 161 crane was able to take care of the task and safe- ly disassemble its 'smaller sibling.' “The option of being able to disassemble the slewing unit came in really handy,” explains Proschwitz. “There’s no other machine with that available!” After the CTT 91 was dismantled, the CTT 161 was disassembled in six hours with the help of a mobile crane. b

For the project at the St. Pauli Landungs- brücken Piers, the Proschwitz team erect-

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