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Undoubtedly, the best place. Plain Alps, just nearby chamonix! Posted some pictures (saving the best yet!) but some of the best sunrises and sundowns of my life where overthere and even the best landscapes don't make justice to what the eyes actually see, some views are etched in my brain forever (i.e., being all snowy and the sundown creating a pink atmosphere all around on the snow).
Spent 2 years there, view was stunning, Marti Team was great and food (including dessert) came everyday, picked fresh from the main restaurant / workplace facility (we at the dam were only a small fraction of the whole construction site, mostly inside the mountain). In summer days, the Cabane was open and the best cheese fondue I've ever had was overthere as well.

The cranes were also something in another level, mostly the 1250B. That crane demanded a lot of skill and was always in demand, never had 1 min stopped, but was it worth it! Everyday you would hoist at least 3 6 ton machines and change the 13ton manitou around in the dam to lift the doka system. The sheer amount of strenght it had meant the moment you had the chains in tension on a 6t machine i.e., you just went all in and it was as if it was picking a feather. And up to 6t the engine always worked at full speed, so you'd get all that monstruous noise. Terribly satisfying. Another great thing about that crane was the sheer amount of strenght in rotation. You could have wind at 60 km/h, jib all out, and in 1st gear the wind wouldn't take it with torque setting on 2 (despite the fact that the other crane driver, nearing retirement, only used 4 and didn't know how to be gentle with it). Talking about the other crane driver, it should also be mentioned that he didn't had hands for it except for brute force and that crane would revenge (in the way of the inumerous machine glasses he broke due to the fact that so much cable meant that all the energy always ended on the thiner chains). Since crane operation is mostly about energy input and relief, you'd have to consider the long amount of cable. Funny story: Once I had to take a couple days so I explained the guy that was with the small 122k. Once I arrived 2 days later, people told me it was a disaster and I spoke with him and he told me: "That Crane has the devil". Well, it didn't, you just had to speak with it and understand her. It took me some days, but after that was all good. Also, a good suggestion to anyone that ever drives one: Don't ever do the jib behind 30m in movements of doing and stopping and doing. It's all about continuous movements and mostly start the jib in 1st gear and do, for example, 1/2/3 (and 4 if the distance to be run is high) but consider the jib is way more faster and the ideal would be 1/2/3 2/3 and 2/3/2/1 continous. Any 3 - > 3 is a recipe for a hook that seems stopped and a some seconds later you'll have the chains all over the place.
Also, it had a nasty habit when the jib was in equilibrium at around 35/40 meters to start playing with the triangle were the jib rests and out of nowhere the counterweights would start slapping each other out of the blue. As said, that crane needs smoothness in some positions. Hope I helped!

Also one of the most memorable fears was on that crane, since we dumped concrete with a 5 m3 (yes, 15 ton!) basket, sometimes on the 1st year the electricity would send the variators nuts (network problem) and the crane would stop. And once it stopped just as I was full speed slewing at the worst moment of the balance (just when it starts going again) at around 50 m out and I can tell you that the moment you look up and you see the jib flexing like a straw and 15 tons going like 10 meters to the side while the slewing is stopped (engines were really strong, so were the brakes) you think all is done and you start praying. After 2 minutes when electricity came back and those 15 tonnes were still moving around I gained a renewed faith on it. If that didn't brought it down, nothing would anymore! Nevertheless, also quite memorable!

But, what a machine is all I have to say!

Feel free to ask any question about it or that construction site, it did had many interesting stuff (and stories)!

Link to the construction site latest video (funny enough, I don't appear in any of the videos, and the guy dropping the manitou only replaced some noons middays on both cranes, despite the fact that the guy driving the manitou was the actual guy on the 1st assembly one year before I arrived, but he preferred the manitou and the machines (he even appears driving the wheel loader on it). As I've said, nobody really understood that crane, and yes, it was demanding but once in synchrony and cared for, extremely rewarding and put a smile on my face everyday! ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Da-aSVlTmk

An actual video of me on the day of the celebration of last concrete pouring, that I found lately, filmed by someone at the party day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Gyfd2eqS0

Feel free to ask any question about it or that construction site, it did had many interesting stuff and stories (including helicopters and other things, this construction site was quite remarkable in many ways and details and I'd be happy to share)!

Cheers!

FernandoGarrido schrieb:

Undoubtedly, the best place. Plain Alps, just nearby chamonix! Posted some pictures (saving the best yet!) but some of the best sunrises and sundowns of my life where overthere and even the best landscapes don't make justice to what the eyes actually see, some views are etched in my brain forever (i.e., being all snowy and the sundown creating a pink atmosphere all around on the snow).
Spent 2 years there, view was stunning, Marti Team was great and food (including dessert) came everyday, picked fresh from the main restaurant / workplace facility (we at the dam were only a small fraction of the whole construction site, mostly inside the mountain). In summer days, the Cabane was open and the best cheese fondue I've ever had was overthere as well.

The cranes were also something in another level, mostly the 1250B. That crane demanded a lot of skill and was always in demand, never had 1 min stopped, but was it worth it! Everyday you would hoist at least 3 6 ton machines and change the 13ton manitou around in the dam to lift the doka system. The sheer amount of strenght it had meant the moment you had the chains in tension on a 6t machine i.e., you just went all in and it was as if it was picking a feather. And up to 6t the engine always worked at full speed, so you'd get all that monstruous noise. Terribly satisfying. Another great thing about that crane was the sheer amount of strenght in rotation. You could have wind at 60 km/h, jib all out, and in 1st gear the wind wouldn't take it with torque setting on 2 (despite the fact that the other crane driver, nearing retirement, only used 4 and didn't know how to be gentle with it). Talking about the other crane driver, it should also be mentioned that he didn't had hands for it except for brute force and that crane would revenge (in the way of the inumerous machine glasses he broke due to the fact that so much cable meant that all the energy always ended on the thiner chains). Since crane operation is mostly about energy input and relief, you'd have to consider the long amount of cable. Funny story: Once I had to take a couple days so I explained the guy that was with the small 122k. Once I arrived 2 days later, people told me it was a disaster and I spoke with him and he told me: "That Crane has the devil". Well, it didn't, you just had to speak with it and understand her. It took me some days, but after that was all good. Also, a good suggestion to anyone that ever drives one: Don't ever do the jib behind 30m in movements of doing and stopping and doing. It's all about continuous movements and mostly start the jib in 1st gear and do, for example, 1/2/3 (and 4 if the distance to be run is high) but consider the jib is way more faster and the ideal would be 1/2/3 2/3 and 2/3/2/1 continous. Any 3 - > 3 is a recipe for a hook that seems stopped and a some seconds later you'll have the chains all over the place.
Also, it had a nasty habit when the jib was in equilibrium at around 35/40 meters to start playing with the triangle were the jib rests and out of nowhere the counterweights would start slapping each other out of the blue. As said, that crane needs smoothness in some positions. Hope I helped!

Also one of the most memorable fears was on that crane, since we dumped concrete with a 5 m3 (yes, 15 ton!) basket, sometimes on the 1st year the electricity would send the variators nuts (network problem) and the crane would stop. And once it stopped just as I was full speed slewing at the worst moment of the balance (just when it starts going again) at around 50 m out and I can tell you that the moment you look up and you see the jib flexing like a straw and 15 tons going like 10 meters to the side while the slewing is stopped (engines were really strong, so were the brakes) you think all is done and you start praying. After 2 minutes when electricity came back and those 15 tonnes were still moving around I gained a renewed faith on it. If that didn't brought it down, nothing would anymore! Nevertheless, also quite memorable!

But, what a machine is all I have to say!

Feel free to ask any question about it or that construction site, it did had many interesting stuff (and stories)!

Link to the construction site latest video (funny enough, I don't appear in any of the videos, and the guy dropping the manitou only replaced some noons middays on both cranes, despite the fact that the guy driving the manitou was the actual guy on the 1st assembly one year before I arrived, but he preferred the manitou and the machines (he even appears driving the wheel loader on it). As I've said, nobody really understood that crane, and yes, it was demanding but once in synchrony and cared for, extremely rewarding and put a smile on my face everyday! ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Da-aSVlTmk

An actual video of me on the day of the celebration of last concrete pouring, that I found lately, filmed by someone at the party day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Gyfd2eqS0

Feel free to ask any question about it or that construction site, it did had many interesting stuff and stories (including helicopters and other things, this construction site was quite remarkable in many ways and details and I'd be happy to share)!

Cheers!

...Couldn't resist to also post the link to this video, this one was filmed by a colleague (that also drove it sometimes) on an old Samsung Galaxy S5 cause I wanted to document this. This one doesn't have music like the video I found lately on youtube posted before, so you can actually hear the 1250B hoist engine at full speed. The movement was full speed since the beggining but the 1250B cuts the speed of descent on the hoist engine if you're advancing the jib (same as for when you hoist and pull the jib).

Wollfkran 1250B (filmed by Laurent Chipaux) 

Also, another video from Nant de Drance, focused on us, the first was the totality of the project from 2013 to 2018, so there's some extra footage:

Nant de Drance Best Of 2014

Also, Webmaster, please let EDIT Posts, the feature isn't available!

FernandoGarrido schrieb:

Undoubtedly, the best place. Plain Alps, just nearby chamonix! Posted some pictures (saving the best yet!) but some of the best sunrises and sundowns of my life where overthere and even the best landscapes don't make justice to what the eyes actually see, some views are etched in my brain forever (i.e., being all snowy and the sundown creating a pink atmosphere all around on the snow).
Spent 2 years there, view was stunning, Marti Team was great and food (including dessert) came everyday, picked fresh from the main restaurant / workplace facility (we at the dam were only a small fraction of the whole construction site, mostly inside the mountain). In summer days, the Cabane was open and the best cheese fondue I've ever had was overthere as well.

The cranes were also something in another level, mostly the 1250B. That crane demanded a lot of skill and was always in demand, never had 1 min stopped, but was it worth it! Everyday you would hoist at least 3 6 ton machines and change the 13ton manitou around in the dam to lift the doka system. The sheer amount of strenght it had meant the moment you had the chains in tension on a 6t machine i.e., you just went all in and it was as if it was picking a feather. And up to 6t the engine always worked at full speed, so you'd get all that monstruous noise. Terribly satisfying. Another great thing about that crane was the sheer amount of strenght in rotation. You could have wind at 60 km/h, jib all out, and in 1st gear the wind wouldn't take it with torque setting on 2 (despite the fact that the other crane driver, nearing retirement, only used 4 and didn't know how to be gentle with it). Talking about the other crane driver, it should also be mentioned that he didn't had hands for it except for brute force and that crane would revenge (in the way of the inumerous machine glasses he broke due to the fact that so much cable meant that all the energy always ended on the thiner chains). Since crane operation is mostly about energy input and relief, you'd have to consider the long amount of cable. Funny story: Once I had to take a couple days so I explained the guy that was with the small 122k. Once I arrived 2 days later, people told me it was a disaster and I spoke with him and he told me: "That Crane has the devil". Well, it didn't, you just had to speak with it and understand her. It took me some days, but after that was all good. Also, a good suggestion to anyone that ever drives one: Don't ever do the jib behind 30m in movements of doing and stopping and doing. It's all about continuous movements and mostly start the jib in 1st gear and do, for example, 1/2/3 (and 4 if the distance to be run is high) but consider the jib is way more faster and the ideal would be 1/2/3 2/3 and 2/3/2/1 continous. Any 3 - > 3 is a recipe for a hook that seems stopped and a some seconds later you'll have the chains all over the place.
Also, it had a nasty habit when the jib was in equilibrium at around 35/40 meters to start playing with the triangle were the jib rests and out of nowhere the counterweights would start slapping each other out of the blue. As said, that crane needs smoothness in some positions. Hope I helped!

Also one of the most memorable fears was on that crane, since we dumped concrete with a 5 m3 (yes, 15 ton!) basket, sometimes on the 1st year the electricity would send the variators nuts (network problem) and the crane would stop. And once it stopped just as I was full speed slewing at the worst moment of the balance (just when it starts going again) at around 50 m out and I can tell you that the moment you look up and you see the jib flexing like a straw and 15 tons going like 10 meters to the side while the slewing is stopped (engines were really strong, so were the brakes) you think all is done and you start praying. After 2 minutes when electricity came back and those 15 tonnes were still moving around I gained a renewed faith on it. If that didn't brought it down, nothing would anymore! Nevertheless, also quite memorable!

But, what a machine is all I have to say!

Feel free to ask any question about it or that construction site, it did had many interesting stuff (and stories)!

Link to the construction site latest video (funny enough, I don't appear in any of the videos, and the guy dropping the manitou only replaced some noons middays on both cranes, despite the fact that the guy driving the manitou was the actual guy on the 1st assembly one year before I arrived, but he preferred the manitou and the machines (he even appears driving the wheel loader on it). As I've said, nobody really understood that crane, and yes, it was demanding but once in synchrony and cared for, extremely rewarding and put a smile on my face everyday! ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Da-aSVlTmk

An actual video of me on the day of the celebration of last concrete pouring, that I found lately, filmed by someone at the party day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Gyfd2eqS0

Feel free to ask any question about it or that construction site, it did had many interesting stuff and stories (including helicopters and other things, this construction site was quite remarkable in many ways and details and I'd be happy to share)!

Cheers!

Hi Fernando,

Your pictures and description of your time on this project is very special. Most projects we would work on as crane operators are predominately within city centres whether it be a residential buildings or new office blocks. So to have had those views, sunrises and sundowns as you describe so vividly, its understanding that it became etched within your brain. To also have had the opportunity to operate the 1250b. I like the way you have described being in tune with the machine. This can be applied to any machine we operate, the need for the operator to understand the control, torque, use of gears, speeds and timing. This will then achieve the best possible control and utilization for the rest of the project team.

Would you say this was once in a lifetime project or is there many opportunities for work like this in Switzerland?

Thanks again for sharing your experience with us.

Jonathan.Parker schrieb:

Hi Fernando,

Your pictures and description of your time on this project is very special. Most projects we would work on as crane operators are predominately within city centres whether it be a residential buildings or new office blocks. So to have had those views, sunrises and sundowns as you describe so vividly, its understanding that it became etched within your brain. To also have had the opportunity to operate the 1250b. I like the way you have described being in tune with the machine. This can be applied to any machine we operate, the need for the operator to understand the control, torque, use of gears, speeds and timing. This will then achieve the best possible control and utilization for the rest of the project team.

Would you say this was once in a lifetime project or is there many opportunities for work like this in Switzerland?

Thanks again for sharing your experience with us.

 

Hi mate, sorry for the late reply!

Yes, it was a very special crane, it did took some time and study to understand it. I.e. there was an older 500B on place as well and it was way different to drive. I do think 1250B was on a league of its own, both in how it rewarded you if you knew how to play with it and how it would punish you if you didn't. There were some quite specific things about that crane. I do also think it was over engineered somehow, mostly on the slewing gear because of being the first (I've later found out that crane was indeed the first one you see presented at Bauma in 2009). Not that I complain about it, I loved to stop it slowly with all movements at same time, with smoothness after full speed and knowing you have that extra punch if you need it is really great. But I can indeed tell some specific stories if you're interested.

And yes, I definitely agree and when I was there I knew I was in a very special place and not the typical construction site, in many ways, can't complain. Worked alot of hours (we only worked the summer months there) but I was enjoying every bit of it as I was doing it. Funny story, at the start of each season we'd have to take away the snow (and both cranes had their jib removed during winter months) and I can say I hoisted alot of snow, we had one of those swing buckets for dirt and stuff, only difference was that that one was for 12 m3. Fully charged of dirt and rocks was 27ish tons, fully charged of snow was around 16 tons. lol. Also, the concrete basket was from SECATOL (as well as the dirt basket), both were new and the one for concrete had a battery, remote control and hidraulics. I never had the remote control up in the cabin, was always someone down opening it (and sometimes was a really dumb fella as well) but theoretically you could pour the concrete on your own. That basket was serial number 00001. Also, the wings would go up at the moment it was opened around a meter, so it automatically compensated. They had to install the 1250B on site cause a flat jib wouldn't be appropriate between the mountains. Word is that it went so well that now in another dam that is going to be built, they'll use a 1250B again. But surely won't be me :)

Regarding your question;

That was a once in a lifetime project and funny fact: I was a temporary worker. Now, regarding if there are more opportunities like that in Switzerland? Yes, but you gotta be on the right place at the right time. There was a LIEBHERR 630 EC-H in Zurich gare some years ago. Another one in Geneva 2 years ago. There are special projects in Switzerland, but the thing is, in Switzerland if they need heavy machinery they'll just rent it and done. In other countries you need a 400 metric tonne crane and they'll use a 200 instead. You understood the logic? Of course everything associated will be bigger. I.e. the 1250 B overthere was planned to work in another way, but then when they changed the way having a manitou lifting the doka system, the crane could transport it in each individual sector almost to the tip. If the crane was smaller (which could have done the job as well) you'd be limited already. I see it on everyday workplaces as well, they use a lot of pre fabricated pieces of concrete in usual construction sites and the cranes almost everytime lift at least the double of that weight and tend to be able to go near the jib tip with it.

I'm building a 8 stories high building at the moment and the crane used is a 7532.16 cross. :)

Hope I answered your question and feel free to ask more if needed.

Oh, and thanks for the compliments!

Cheers!