Another milestone for the bridge connecting Piccadilly and Victoria stations was achieved in February at the home of the first passenger railway bridge in the world in Manchester, England, which dates back to the 1830s. Led by Project Manager Jarrod Hulme and with the assistance of LR 1750 and LR 11350 Liebherr crawler cranes provided by Weldex, the 560-tonne steel structure was hoisted around 50 metres to the opposite bank of the River Irwell.

Larger ballast radius of the LR 11350 enabled it to hoist the bridge

This hoist constituted a massive load case for the LR 11350 as a result of the required radius of 51 metres. The 357-tonne gross load could only be managed at this distance because the extended guide frame on this crane model makes it possible to extend the radius of the derrick ballast pallet from 25 to 30 metres. This configuration of the crane, known as SLDB2, enables it to handle an additional load case of almost 50 tonnes with a radius of around 50 metres.

However, before the enormous bridge arch could be hoisted over the river, the crawler cranes had to move it around 30 metres in stages up to the bank. The synchronous transport was interrupted several times because the cranes had to be fitted with additional ballast. An LTR 1100 telescopic crawler crane stacked the derrick ballast of the LR 11350 up to the maximum of 600 tonnes. Together with the central and turntable ballast, ultimately there were 830 tonnes of counterweights on the crane. The actual hoist over the water then took place slowly and with no complications with a great deal of care and precision. The bridge arch was in position not even three hours after the load had been picked up.