Special Liebherr civil engineering machines help extend Bremerhaven container terminal

In order to create additional berths for the latest generation of container ships, the container terminal at Bremerhaven is currently being extended from 3,200 to 4,872 metres. This large-scale project will involve 37,000 tonnes of steel sheet piling, 10,000 tonnes of reinforcing steel, 60,000 cubic metres of concrete and ten million cubic metres of sand.

A major and complex phase in the project is the construction of the upstream sheet-pile wall under full tidal influence in the River Weser.

The piling work this requires is being carried out by a Liebherr Type LR 1280 hydraulic rope excavator and a Liebherr Type HS 895 HD crawler crane with special attachments. They work from two big lifting platforms, enabling the Liebherr piling equipment and the structural members to be positioned exactly.

The first stage involves the Liebherr LR 1280 crawler crane ramming in a total of 743 double piles, with dimensions of 1,000 to 1,016 and lengths of up to 42.5 metres. The single piles weigh around 25 tonnes, meaning the overall tonnage lifted is 17,500 tonnes.

To absorb horizontal forces, the Liebherr HS 895 HD then rams in 743 raked piles from atop another lifting platform. Each of these 45-metre long piles weighs 7.2 tonnes, resulting in a total of 5,300 tonnes for the HS 895.

A Liebherr HS 883 HD hydraulic rope excavator is also in operation at Bremerhaven, to undertake additional piling work. Other Liebherr hydraulic rope excavators, of Type HS 883 HD and HS 833 HD, will be used on the building site for lifting.