Lifting a 728-tonne railway bridge over a river isn’t your average construction gig–even for a seasoned team. Italian company Vernazza pulled off a massive lift in the Italian town of Soave, near San Bonifacio, using a coordinated trio of crawler cranes to make it happen.
The job involved installing a 78-metre-long steel bridge over the Alpone River. To do that, Vernazza deployed three lattice boom crawler cranes — two on one side of the river and one on the other. The heaviest lifting was assigned to a Tadano CC 68.1250-1 crane, chosen for its raw power and mobility.
This crane had to first lift the entire bridge by itself, raising it 15 metres high with a 20-metre reach. Then it carefully travelled 45 metres along specially prepared red ironwood mats towards the river. To manage the load, the bridge was rigged at four points, and the crane was set up in an SSL (Superlift) configuration with a 72-metre boom.
Once the main crane was in position, two additional cranes joined the operation. A Tadano CC 38.650-1 with a 68-metre boom and a 400-tonne crawler crane with a 35-metre boom hooked onto either end of the bridge. Together, the three machines manoeuvred the massive structure into place with precision, allowing it to be set down perfectly on its support points.
The lift went smoothly thanks to detailed planning and precise execution. “It was a complicated job that needed perfect coordination between all three cranes,” said Mauro Milano from Vernazza. He credited the engineering team for ensuring everything went off without a hitch.
Vernazza highlighted the CC 68.1250-1 crane’s performance as a key factor in the project’s success. The crane, which travelled over 200 kilometres from Ravenna, can be fully assembled in about a week with just five crew members — even under difficult conditions.
The entire project took two months and around 20 employees on site, with teams rotating through different tasks. Despite a tight timeline, everything was completed on schedule. “The right equipment and the right people made all the difference,” said Milano. “And that’s what really matters.”