Faced with an 8-tonne axle-load restriction, MOBI-HUB had to rethink how to transport and assemble its Grove GMK6450-1 for a demanding tower crane dismantling job in Berlin.
Removing a tower crane from a busy Berlin street is a lifting job. Getting the right mobile crane to the site in the first place can be the harder part. That was the case in the Neukölln district, where German crane rental company Mobile-Hubtechnik Kranarbeiten und Transporte, known as MOBI-HUB, had to dismantle a Potain MD 120 tower crane for Berlin-based Wilhelm Banzhaf Krananlagen.
The route to the jobsite crossed the tracks of Berlin’s metro system, which meant an axle-load limit of 8 t. MOBI-HUB’s answer was its Grove GMK6450-1, the strongest six-axle all-terrain crane in the Grove range, with a capacity of 450 t and a 60 m main boom.
Taking the boom off
To stay within the limit, MOBI-HUB removed the crane’s main boom and transported it on a lightweight semi-trailer. Both the crane carrier and the trailer then fell within the 8 t-per-axle restriction. On site, two smaller mobile cranes helped position the main boom, and the MOBI-HUB team completed the rest of the assembly.
“It was not simply a matter of finding a high-capacity crane. We needed a machine that could handle heavy lifts at long working radii of over 70 m while operating in a highly constrained workspace.”
Said Aicke Grell, crane operator at MOBI-HUB.
Because the site was on a busy street, he added, keeping the project on schedule was critical to minimise disruption.
Long reach in a tight space
The GMK6450-1 was rigged with a 73 m luffing jib, a 115 t counterweight, and an outrigger base measuring 8.7 by 8.5 m. That configuration let it handle the heaviest parts of the Potain MD 120, up to 9 t, at working radii of up to 72 m and a hook height of around 59 m.
The crew first removed the major components, including ballast, counter-jib and main jib sections, before taking down the mast sections in sequence.
Why it matters for crane owners
For rental companies, the job shows the value of a heavy crane that can be split for transport. Urban sites increasingly come with weight limits on bridges, rail crossings and roads, and a crane that can only travel fully assembled can lose work to smaller, less capable machines.
The GMK6450-1’s MEGATRAK independent suspension, all-wheel steering and compact six-axle layout are designed for moving between sites. MOBI-HUB is also supported locally by Manitowoc’s German teams in Wilhelmshaven and Langenfeld.
“The GMK6450-1 is a strategic crane in our fleet because it combines transport efficiency, lifting performance and reach in a way that allows us to carry out a wide range of complex projects, and when necessary, we can also meet stringent roading requirements,”
Said Georg Hallau, owner of MOBI-HUB.
The Berlin project shows that, in complex urban lifting operations, getting a crane to the jobsite can be just as challenging as the lift itself, making transport flexibility as important as lifting capacity.
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