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4.5 Years of Crane Operation at the Grimsel Pass Successfully Completed
An overview of this Alpine deployment is, first and foremost, one of impressive figures: Wolffkran’s largest luffing crane, the Wipper WOLFF 1250 B, moved around 500,000 t of concrete over the course of roughly 32,000 lifts. Due to the high operating frequency, each crane's hoist rope had to be replaced twice per season. For the Grimsel Pass project, Wolffkran specifically developed the XXL tower element TV 60 with 6 m side length. It formed the solid basis for the nearly 100-m-tall cranes, both of which stood on pile foundations weighing over 1,500 t each – on average 10 times heavier than a conventional foundation anchor. “Standard towers and foundations would not have withstood the extreme weather conditions. With the TV 60, the WOLFF cranes could operate free-standing,” said Ralph Stump, managing director of Wolffkran Schweiz AG. Operational readiness around the clock On top of all this comes the special challenges of operating in the mountains: dense fog within minutes, meters of snow overnight, av-alanches and storms. Nevertheless, all WOLFF employees re-mained highly motivated. “If the call came at 10:30 am that a rope had to be replaced, our installers had the spare part up on the crane by noon. By 5:30 pm operations were running again,” said Ralph Stump. “Replacing a 120-kg bolt at over 90 m height on the crane – here, too, our team was on site. Despite the demands, interest in this job was high, and all of the 6 crane operators are proud to have been part of this special project.” Dismantling began in October 2024, and by June 2025 the last parts were transported down into the valley. A total crane volume of 4,205 m3 with a total weight of 1,281 t was distributed over more than 60 truck journeys, some with oversize loads. In addition to team, technology and logistics, the sophisticated over-wintering concept also proved invaluable. Each crane was automatically moved 3 times a day during the winter season, i.e. the hoist winch, luffing gear, and switch cabinet were wrapped with special insulation mats. This colossal effort really paid off, as the WOLFF cranes were able to proceed directly from their Alpine assignment to their next construction site: the Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Sta-dium in Qiddiya in Saudi Arabia, for which the contract was recently signed. On this construction site as well, located on an exposed cliff with harsh weather conditions, the TV 60 will enable freestanding tower heights of around 100 m. A project with impact both outwardly and inwardly Chances are high that the experiences gained at the Grimsel Pass will also feed into future construction projects. “Interest in our crane concept was very strong throughout the entire construction period,” says Ralph Stump. “Numerous experts and representative of re-nowned construction companies, planners, and engineers – many from abroad as well – visited the construction site and were im-pressed by our red giants in operation. We are already exploring po-tential follow-up projects.”
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The short construction season from May to October made it necessary for the crane operators to work 24/7 in a 3-shift system.
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