A crew of six from helicopter operator Heliswiss International delivered components for the Liebherr 150 EC-B8 crane to specialist crane erector FT Montage at an altitude of 1,913m.
Vinci Construction France is building the new cable car station and educational centre at Montenvers station alongside the Mer de Glace, France’s largest glacier.
The new International Glacier & Climate Interpretation Centre is intended to increase awareness of climate change among students, tourists and local residents and the cable car is required to provide easy access.
The Montenvers redevelopment will cost more than €50m and is due to be completed in December 2024. The project was designed to be of high ecological and architectural quality in order to minimise the impact on the environment.
The inaccessible location meant that a helicopter was the only means of delivering the crane sections to the site, where it was assembled on foundations anchored to the underlying rock.
One of the challenges for the contractor was to find a crane that had enough lifting capacity for the project but broke down into components that fall within the helicopter’s 3,800kg lifting capacity.
Liebherr worked with customers Solumat GAT (the materials division of Vinci Group) and CBCE Grenoble, a local contractor that is also owned by Vinci) to find an economic solution.
Liebherr suggested the 150 EC-B because its counter-jib, which weighs 3,600kg, is just within the helicopter’s lifting capacity. Another benefit was that the flat-top crane can be easily dismantled into several individual parts thanks to its flexible design.
Elements such as the crane’s compact head, slewing platform, operator's cab and control unit can all be reconnected quickly. The project’s architect and contractor also modified the site layout so that the loads to be moved wouldn’t exceed the crane's maximum lifting capacity of eight tonnes.
This was partly achieved through the use of lighter concrete elements. The crane has a tower height of over 40 metres, a jib length of 45 metres and an under-hook height of 42 metres.
Assembly took about eight hours during which the Kamov KA 32 A11 BC helicopter from Heliswiss International flew back and forth 30 times to deliver all the crane components.
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