MJ van Riel makes four crane synchronised lift

A quartet of large telescopic boom wheeled mobile cranes prepares to lift the refurbished gantry crane weighing 240 tonnes. Photo: Tadano

Four large wheeled mobile telescopic cranes worked together on a spectacular project to install and erect a 240 tonne gantry crane at a European port.

Dutch lifting specialist MJ van Riel used a pair of Tadano AC 9.700-1s, an AC 8.500-1 and a Liebherr LTM 1450-8.1, all lifting together, to erect the gantry crane at the Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) inland port. It was an impressive group of large cranes: two nine axle 700 tonners with a 500 tonner and 450 tonner, both on eight axle carriers. 

Prior to the installation lift, back in March, Van Riel dismantled the gantry crane on the site so it could be overhauled. In July the company was contracted to reinstall the now refurbished crane.

“The lift required enormous lifting capacities, which is why we decided on the specific cranes we used,” commented Claire van Riel, marketing and communication officer. All four cranes were from the MJ van Riel headquarters in Tilburg, 30 kilometres or around 45 minutes away from the Den Bosch site.

To manage the big lift all four cranes were set up with full counterweight but no superlift. It took about 90 minutes to set up each one.

Lifting quartet

It then came time for the lift which turned out to be more of a challenge. “Synchronously lifting a load this heavy with four cranes is really complex and requires extremely meticulous planning,” Claire Van Riel said.

Equal distribution of the load between the four cranes was essential to avoid overloading any individual one of them. Synchronisation of the lifting movements prevented the load from overturning and took out any tendency to twist or warp the load.

First, the gantry crane was lifted 24 metres above the ground, then swung 10 metres to one side before being set down in exactly the right position.