In the past they have been a great help, today they are absolutely essential – Liebherr mobile and crawler cranes are in action all over the world. Whether they are used for renovation and refurbishment work, spectacular or just everyday hoists – these cranes are helping to change the world.

The “Yellow Wall” supports the home matches of Borussia Dortmund by generating a volume of up to 108 dB at Signal Iduna Park, which has a capacity of 81,360, making it one of the largest football stadiums in Europe. An LG 1550 played a major role in its construction.

The foundations for the original Westfalenstadion were laid in 1971. Built to host the World Cup in Germany in 1974, the stadium became the home of Borussia Dortmund after the tournament had ended. During the major refurbishment work carried out between 1995 and 1999, an LG 1550 was responsible for installing the steel girders to support the roof on the stands. Each roof girder weighs around 300 tonnes and measures 110 metres long and around 16 metres high. These girders were installed over all four stands. The LG 1550 from Fricke-Schmidbauer was in action there for several weeks at the time. The capacity of what today is known as the Signal Iduna Park was increased to 81,360 spectators during a total of three expansion phases – the “Yellow Wall”, as the south stand is known, can hold 25,000 spectators with a gradient of 37 degrees and is now the heart and soul of the stadium.

The TCC 78000 was unveiled in August 2019 to great ceremony. TCC stands for Travelling Cargo Crane. It is a rail-mounted heavy duty crane which moves on a gantry between the Liebherr factory plant in Rostock and the edge of the neighbouring quayside. Its maximum lifting capacity of 1600 tonnes and total height of 164 metres with its boom projecting into the sky means that the TCC 78000 will not only dominate the skyline of the port of Rostock in the future, but will also help expand heavy load handling operations in Rostock. Fitted with a double chassis and a track gauge of 30 metres, it is designed to handle large goods of all types. An LTM 11200-9.1 from Megalift and an LG 1750 from Mammoet were both used to install the crane, including positioning the top section of the boom at a height of around 100 metres.

After a construction period of 17 years, the Frauenkirche in Dresden was completed in 1743 – it was then destroyed in just 2 days at the end of the 2nd World War. A small part remained as a ruin and memorial until reconstruction commenced in 1994. The new building was completed in 2005, financed mainly by support groups and donations from all over the world. An LG 1550 positioned the dome with its cupola cross in place to mark the end of the construction work.

Hamburg HafenCity is one of the largest inner city development projects in Europe. And at its heart – the Marco Polo Terraces. A 6400 square metre terrace-shaped square with its hilly lawns and wooden platforms is a perfect place to watch the world go by. An LTM 1070-4.1 installed the large wooden benches.

A great deal of value was attached to the quality of free space design in the development of HafenCity. The interplay between land, water and tides has been skilfully used as a design element. The Marco Polo Terraces are an excellent example of this. Hamburg-based company Krandienst Schulz used an LTM 1070-4.1 to install the large wooden benches. The heaviest bench sections weighed in at 700 kg and were hoisted using radii of up to 38 metres.