The largest and heaviest of its kind: RUD lifts gigantic lattice cage in downtown Berlin.

With a total length of 25 meters and a weight of around 56 tons, it is the largest and heaviest lattice cage ever erected and sunk into the ground. This so-called T-cage forms the basic framework for a bridge pier directly on the A100 in Berlin's city center.

Is a 25-meter-long wire mesh stable enough to be erected? Not really! The challenge? An even distribution of forces along the entire length. Together with the project managers and companies involved, work was done on the statics of the wire mesh cage and suitable lifting solutions were discussed to ensure safe erection. Mr. Dietschke from the LASH+LIFT site in Berlin coordinated all involved partners and was thus always close to the customer and the project.

On March 29, the time had come: The gigantic lattice cage was erected and lowered into the ground.

Two 22mm RUD VIP chain blocks (VCB) were used. The exciting thing about this special suspension system is that the sling chains move over the deflection rollers of the RUD VIP chain block, thus allowing optimum load distribution. The two VIP chain slings each had a chain length of 10 meters (this corresponds to a useful length of 5 meters each) with a respective total weight of 178 kilograms - completely in the sense of "gigantic loads require gigantic (slinging) means"!

"Often, a length of 25 meters and the resulting challenges are not much to imagine. For comparison, the installed T-basket is roughly the length of a tennis court. Lifting this unstable structure safely is no easy task," recalls Patrick Vollmer, Technical Sales at RUD. "Our VIP lifting gear and especially our VIP chain block were able to provide a safe solution here."