Wolffs take on new heights

A pair of Wolffkran 6031.8 flat top tower cranes are reaching heights of more than 120 m at a power station construction site in Mannheim, Germany.

The trolley jib cranes are tied at just one position on the two stair towers in block 9 of the power station construction.

Despite the freestanding hook heights, foundation dimensions had to be kept to a minimum. To meet this requirement, one of the cranes was fixed with 140 tonnes of ballast, while the other took 120 tonnes. "These additional weights can simply be removed once the cranes have completed their work, and have allowed us to avoid large foundation footprints," said Thomas Kühner, crane foreman at the BMTI Maschinentechnik, which supervised the cranes.

For this job, the traditional red of the Wolff cranes was replaced with yellow in line with site contractor Züblin's brand colour. Both cranes are expected to remain in operation at the site until February 2011.