A pair of airport projects is changing the transportation landscape for Greenland, and a Liebherr crawler crane is playing a key role. New airports in Ilulissat and Nuuk, in the western part of Greenland, will replace fields that could only accommodate propeller-driven planes previously with runways that can accept larger aircraft flying directly from Europe or the American mainland.
The new runway in Ilulissat is partly in the sea. A thick layer of clay sediment has to be removed from the seabed before it can be backfilled. Otherwise, settlement may occur over time. The Danish company Munck Civil Engineering, the main contractor for the two projects, is using the HS 8200 duty cycle crawler crane from Liebherr for this dredging work.
“In one day shift, our extraction rate can be up to 1,000 cubic metres of excavated clay material,” explains construction manager Kevin van den Bos.
The 200-tonne duty cycle crawler crane is operating with a 35-metre long boom and a clamshell grab with a capacity of 3.5 cubic metres. To achieve high productivity, the HS 8200 is equipped with Liebherr’s Dredging Assistant, which shows the operator the position and fill level of the grab, the number and duration of work cycles, or the handling performance in real-time. The system also makes it easier to calculate the amount of material needed to fill the area for the runway.
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