The range of hoisting jobs which crane service providers are asked to do by their customers is quite diverse. Argentinian company GRÚAS BOVIER SRL completed a very special crane job in the province of Entre Rios – to the north of Buenos Aires, two meteorites had to be lifted out of a museum and prepared for transport.
Ehingen (Donau) (Germany), 22 July 2024 – “To be honest, it would never have occurred to us that we would one day be asked to hoist two rocks from outer space,” says Justo Bovier from GRÚAS BOVIER SRL, who still cannot quite believe it. In June, he and his team were working in Paraná with an LTM 1060/2 built in 2006. The job involved hoisting two meteorite fragments from the Antonio Serrano Natural History Museum. “After we had completed the job with our crane, they were taken to the place where they were originally discovered in the northern Argentinian province of Chaco, 1,000 kilometres from our city.”
The two space rocks weighed over two tonnes in total - with one weighing 1,600 kilograms and the other 600 kilograms. To hoist them, the 4-axle crane was set up with twelve tonnes of ballast and the crane boom was extended to a length of 29 metres. A routine hoist in itself, but one that required extensive planning in advance. As the cultural and historical heritage of the province of Entre Rios, the museum is a listed building. The building, including the floors and inner courtyard, could not be modified for hoisting the meteorites: “So our LTM 1060/2 hoisted the fragments from the inner courtyard over the roofs without them having to pass through the various rooms of the museum,” adds Bovier. The work, including safety measures and road closures, took more than two hours.
Exciting job, exciting back story
GRÚAS BOVIER has been specially commissioned by the Chaco provincial government authorities. And the back story of the meteorites is no less exciting than the actual job for GRÚAS BOVIER. Around 4,000 years ago, rocks weighing several tonnes fell to earth and landed in “Campo del Cielo”, in the area of the province of Chaco, whose poetic name translates as Field of the Sky, they caught the attention of scientists and many tourists. And they also attracted the interest of smugglers. They stole the two meteorites to sell them on the black market. The smugglers travelled around 1.100 kilometres with the rocks, but they never made it out of the country. On 23 February 2007, the meteorites were discovered during a traffic control by the Gendarmería Nacional Argentina in the Ceibas area of the province Entre Ríos, who then placed them in the care of the Museo de Ciencias Naturales y Antropológicas “Profesor Antonio Serrano” in Paraná, the provincial capital of Entre Ríos. So, all’s well that ends well, with the two space rocks finally being returned to the place where they were originally found.
About Liebherr-Werk Ehingen GmbH
Liebherr-Werk Ehingen GmbH is a leading manufacturer of mobile and crawler cranes. Its range of mobile cranes extends from 2-axle 35 tonne cranes to heavy duty cranes with a lifting capacity of 1200 tonnes and a 9-axle chassis. Its lattice boom cranes on mobile or crawler travel gear deliver lifting capacities of up to 3000 tonnes. With universal boom systems and extensive auxiliary equipment, they can be seen in action on construction sites throughout the world. The Ehingen site has a workforce of 5,000. An extensive, global service network guarantees the high availability of Liebherr mobile and crawler cranes. In 2023, the Liebherr plant in Ehingen recorded a turnover of 2.81 billion euros.
About the Liebherr Group – 75 years of moving forward
The Liebherr Group is a family-run technology company with a highly diversified product programme. The company is one of the largest construction equipment manufacturers in the world. It also provides high-quality, user-oriented products and services in a wide range of other areas. The Liebherr Group includes over 150 companies across all continents. In 2023, it employed more than 50,000 staff and achieved combined revenues of over 14 billion euros. Liebherr was founded by Hans Liebherr in 1949 in the southern German town of Kirchdorf an der Iller. Since then, the employees have been pursuing the goal of achieving continuous technological innovation, and bringing industry-leading solutions to its customers. Under the slogan ‘75 years of moving forward’, the Group celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2024.
Contact
Berenike NordmannMarketing and CommunicationPhone: +49 7391 / 502-0Email: berenike.nordmann@liebherr.com
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Liebherr-Werk Ehingen GmbHEhingen (Donau), Germanywww.liebherr.com
