Vernazza Autogru mobilized a pair of Tadano crawler cranes to lift two bridge sections, weighing 500 and 290 tons, on the porto di Prà site in Genoa, on behalf of the Fincantieri group.
The two Tadano lattice cranes CC 68.1250-1 (1250 ton capacity) and CC 38.650-1 (650 ton capacity) positioned the bridge sections, consisting of steel girders and concrete deck, on pillars with the utmost precision. "These demanding lifts required cranes capable not only of lifting extremely heavy loads, but also of moving them suspended in the air. The only candidates qualified for the job were our two Tadano lattice boom crawler cranes," explains Marco Galli, project manager.
The main difficulty was that Vernazza Autogru had to carry out the lifting work on the road junction, passing over existing bridges, the Genoa-Ventimiglia railroad line and the busy Aurelia trunk road. Naturally, traffic lanes had to be closed for as short a time as possible, so delays had to be avoided.
The team therefore opted for a tandem lift for the 500-tonne section of the bridge, while the CC 68.1250-1 lifted the 290-tonne section on its own. The CC 68.1250-1 was configured as an SSL, with a 72-meter boom and 450 tons of Superlift counterweight. The CC 38.650-1, also in SSL with a boom of the same length, was equipped with 325 tonnes of Superlift counterweight. Together, the two cranes lifted and moved the 500-tonne section to a span of 50 metres and a height of 7 metres. The CC 68.1250-1 positioned the 290-tonne section at a reach of 41 metres and a height of 9 metres.
