Liebherr LTR 1060 proves its off-road credentials in high Alpine terrain

A Liebherr LTR 1060 was driven around tight bends and on gradients of up to 40 per cent to the site at an altitude of 2020 metres to extend a tunnel on the Gornergrat railway in Zermatt in the Swiss Canton of Wallis. A superb team from Clausen Kran AG with technical assistance from Liebherr in advance and perfect crawler crane technology made the extremely difficult approach possible. A tunnel on the Gornergrat rack railway, the second-highest mountain railway in Europe, is currently being extended to allow a downhill ski run to be run over the tunnel so that in the future it can stage FIS skiing events. The LTR 1060 telescopic crawler crane of Wallis-based crane operator Clausen has already proven its qualities in high Alpine terrain on several occasions in the past. But the challenges for this job were drastically greater than usual. Gravel tracks with tight bends and steep slopes plus gradients of up to 40 per cent had to be overcome on the 920 meter route with an ascent of 180 metres.