Heavy transport provider Schares has utilised its Cometto fleet to support the renewal of a 120-year-old railway bridge in Herten, Germany.
Schares was tasked with supporting construction works on the double-track railway bridge in Herten, North Rhine-Westphalia – a central link in the east–west connection of the Ruhr region. To keep the closure period as short as possible, bridge manufacturer Eiffage Infra-West pre-produced the new structures close to the installation site.
Several precast parts and bridge segments then had to be moved, including two main structures weighing 1,000 tonnes each.
“To realise the overall project, we transported the driving and lifting equipment to the construction site in 22 truckloads,” explained Jan van der Linde, division manager at Schares. On site, two six-axle combinations in four-file configuration for the retaining walls and one 14-axle combination in six-file configuration for the bridge itself were assembled.
In total, 66 axles and four power pack units (PPUs) were used alongside two large Liebherr cranes.
Due to the narrow entrance between the bridge bearings, it was not possible to mount the PPUs on the front of the large combination. “As a practical solution, we positioned them on the loading platform of the Cometto SPMTs,” van der Linde explained.
Shortly before reaching the final position, a surveyor monitored the alignment and gave precise instructions for the exact placement point. “Once the bridge sits, it sits forever”, said van der Linde. “Thanks to the ability to finely adjust the motor power of the Cometto power packs via the potentiometer, highly precise driving manoeuvres down to millimetre accuracy are easily achievable even with such heavy loads.”
Through close collaboration among all parties involved, the project was completed ahead of schedule. This ensured that rail traffic could resume on time.
In October, Vanguard took delivery of 32 SPMT axles and power pack units (PPUs) from Cometto.
