Solid foundations

Liebherr-MCCtec Rostock’s TCC 78000 heavy-duty rail-mounted gantry crane was used for its first project, loading 72 foundation piles at the largest wind farm in Denmark.

The crane was commissioned by EEW Special Pipe Constructions in co-operation with Vattenfall. Rostock-based EEW SPC has been producing monopiles since 2008, which serve as foundation piles for offshore wind turbines; the company has produced more than 1,900 monopile foundation piles.

Delivery of the monopiles to the construction site had to be carried out on a ‘just in time’ basis. Due to the flexible operating periods of the TCC 78000, the monopiles were loaded using the crane. The pace of loading was set by the assembly cycle of the installation ship ‘Svanen’.

Loading the monopiles was not a conventional job; the pipes were loaded directly into the water at Rostock’s overseas port, then towed by two tugs working in rotation to the wind farm construction site. The two open sides of each tube were sealed with specially-manufactured sealing caps, which were installed by Van Oord Offshore Wind Germany, the company also responsible for the construction of the wind farm on-site.

The slinging of the load on the TCC 78000 was carried out with the professional support of Liebherr instructors and crane drivers, under the supervision of the Liebherr Lifting Supervisor. Lifting the slightly conical monopile construction, and the centre of gravity shifted in the longitudinal direction by the sealing caps, required exact planning. Despite these considerations, the highest safety precautions, and the loads weighing hundreds of tonnes, some of the lifts took only 60 minutes from the load being attached with slings to reaching the water.

“We are pleased about the successful completion of the loading activities of the monopiles for the Baltic Sea wind farm Danish Kriegers Flak. In Liebherr we have a strong and reliable partner at our side and are convinced that we will continue to move great things together in the Rostock seaport in the future," said Heiko Mu¨tzelburg, managing director of EEW Special Pipe Constructions.

At the beginning of October, the heavy lift team working on the TCC 78000 were able to book their second external order. A steel construction weighing 260t was lifted from a ship onto a barge for the company Krebs Korrosionsschutz, also based in the Rostock overseas port.

Interest in the TCC 78000 is growing beyond Rostock’s borders, said Udo Wosar, head of heavy lift management at Liebherr-MCCtec Rostock: “The lifting capacity of the gantry crane in conjunction with the optimum conditions for heavy-duty handling at our location is in demand. We are also increasingly handling supra-regional and international customer enquiries.”