A Colossus Placed in Position at Night near Rzeszów

It took only three hours to move and place a gigantic span on the two abutments of the railway viaduct being built in Klęczany near Rzeszów. Despite the high level of complexity, the operation went very smoothly.

Trakcja PRKiI S.A. is the general contractor for the modernisation of the Kraków – Rzeszów railway line, including the Sędziszów – Rzeszów Zachodni section. Alongside comprehensive track and overhead contact line works, the company is carrying out a number of engineering tasks, which include the construction of a new railway viaduct in Klęczany over national road no. 4.

During the night of 8–9 April 2015, in just 3 hours, a steel structure weighing 230 t, 63.6 m long, 7.67 m wide and 4.5 m high was moved and placed on two previously prepared abutments. The operation used a self-propelled crawler crane with a lattice boom and a maximum lifting capacity of 600 t. The crane was configured with a 48 m boom, 180 t of counterweight, 60 t of central ballast and 300 t of Superlift ballast. Apart from the two-person crane crew, the entire operation was carried out by a team of just 12 – riggers and a signaller –, responsible for attaching and releasing the load and coordinating its movement during the transfer.

This task was considerably more difficult than the previous one, because it required moving the structure over the first span, placed during the night of 29–30 May 2014, and the overhead contact line built on it. The whole operation caused no disruption to rail traffic.