Italian crane contractor Gradito Oleodinamica has utilised its Liebherr LR 1500 crawler crane to dismantle a large tunnel boring machine (TBM) in Sicily.
The 500-tonne capacity crawler crane lifted and positioned the TBM components, which weighed up to 370 tonnes.
The TBM had been used for the A19/N.640 road widening project at the Porto Empedocle in Sicily, where Gradito is based and operates a fleet of 19 cranes for lifting and hoisting operations.
Meanwhile, Mediaco has used its Liebherr LG 1750 mobile crane to lift components of a tunnel boring machine as part of TBM components for the Grand Paris infrastructure project.
According to Liebherr, the Grand Paris infrastructure project will see the development of 200 km of underground railway as well as 68 stations. "Like all crane contractors in the Paris area, we are expecting a healthy rate of orders over the next few years," said Patrick Meublat, technical director for the crane business at Mediaco.
"The jobs for our Liebherr cranes around Paris over the next few years will be dominated by assembling and dismantling tunnel boring machines and hoisting railway and road bridges."
The majority of the new metro routes are scheduled for completion by 2030 but the project as a whole will last several decades, said Liebherr.
