Two XXL WOLFF cranes on the overall refurbishment of the Clinical Center in Ingolstadt

The Klinikum Ingolstadt treats around 38,000 people every year. After almost 30 years of caring for patients, the clinical center is itself now in need of some care. Construction work for the overall renovation of the hospital started a year ago. At the end of last year, two WOLFF cranes of the XXL class were put up to add a new floor to the building without interrupting the hospital’s day-to-day business.

Advertisement

From an organizational point of view the renovation of a hospital is very demanding, since the treatment of patients may not be interrupted at any time and medical emergencies do not take construction schedules into consideration. WOLFFKRAN provided two saddle jib cranes of the XXL class for the Ingolstadt site: the WOLFF 9025.20 cross and the WOLFF 8540.20 cross. "Already the assembly of the two WOLFF cranes using a 500-ton mobile crane proved to be very challenging and had to be optimally coordinated with the hospital’s daily business," says Ulrich Langenbein, Sales Manager for Germany at WOLFFKRAN. "The delivery of the mobile crane and WOLFF crane components as well as their pre-assembly on the ground and the set-up of the eight by eight meter cross frame all had to be meticulously coordinated to not interfere with the hospital’s daily routine," says Langenbein.

Long, longer, WOLFFKRAN –a job for the XXL class cranes

Because the emergency area at the front of the hospital building and the service access at the back had to be kept clear at all times, the WOLFF cranes could only be set up on the narrow sides of the building. This meant that very long jib lengths were necessary to fully cover the 160-metrer complex. The WOLFF 9025.20 had a 90-meter jib and tip load capacity of 2.5 tons. The WOLFF 8540.20 was equipped with a special 100-meter jib, which corresponds to the length of a soccer field. "Despite its impressive dimensions, the WOLFF 8540.20 is statically so designed that it can lift a constant load 3.7 tons along the entire jib," says Ulrich Langenbein. "WOLFFKRAN is the only tower crane manufacturer that offers these jib lengths combined with high load capacities," Langenbein continues. The two saddle jib cranes were used to lift the steel substructures and composite panels onto the hospital roof that were necessary for erecting the new seventh floor. Overall, they moved 450 tons of steel, 6,000 m² of reinforced concrete composite flooring as well as 2,900 m2 trapezoidal sheets and 3,000 m² of concrete ceilings for the new roof. In order for cranes to safely slew above each other, they were respectively placed on 37 and 46-meter high towers.

Successful start to a mammoth project

The crane schedule was very tight, since the roof of the clinical center had to be opened up in order to erect the additional floor, which meant that the building was actually exposed to wind and weather during this phase. Working in their usual efficient manner, the WOLFFKRAN team successfully mastered this complex construction phase and completed the job in only four months. However, for the Klinikum Ingolstadt, this was just the beginning. The total renovation of the hospital is scheduled to take a about 20 years.