A Liebherr LTC 1050-3.1 mounts restored bell in La Seu Vella Cathedral

A Liebherr LTC 1050-3.1 compact crane from Grúas Minguella lifted the Mònica bell to a height of 40 metres with a radius of 15 metres.

The contract to mount the restored bell in its original position was awarded to the crane specialist Grúas Minguella in Lérida. The company's Liebherr LTC 1050-3.1 mobile crane took on this difficult task and lifted the 1.5-tonne bell, which is an essential part of the bell tower of Lérida Cathedral and also part of the historical heritage of "La Seu Vella", to a height of 40 metres with a radius of 15 metres.

"One of the main challenges for this manoeuvre was providing access to the work site for the crane. In order to get to the construction site, the LTC 1050-3.1 had to pass through two stone arches that are only three metres high and offer extremely little space," says Tomás Minguella, Managing Director of Grúas Minguella. The Liebherr LTC 1050-3.1 compact crane was a good choice for this job due to its compact dimensions, especially in terms of its height and manoeuvrability. "To ensure the highest level of safety due to the historical value of the Mònica bell, we carried out a simulation of the lift in advance and worked out a special lifting plan," Minguella continues.

On 7 May 2014, Mònica left her location for the first time since her installation in 1486. Due to a crack that could have caused it to break apart, the bell was transported to the Grassmayr workshop in Innsbruck (Austria) for repair. It wasn't until eight years later that it was finally returned to the top of the bell tower due to various bureaucratic hurdles – the tower is a listed building. "For Grúas Minguella, it was a great honour to be able to support this project, because it allowed us to contribute to the history and development of our region," concludes Tomás Minguella.

Raising the bell was not Grúas Minguella's first assignment at La Seu Vella Cathedral. Twenty-five years ago, the company used a Liebherr LTM 1030 mobile crane to carry out maintenance work on Mònica. However, since the boom of the LTM 1030 was shorter than that of the current LTC 1050-3.1, the 30-tonne crane was supported on stacked timber at the time, which allowed it to be raised by almost two metres to reach the required height.
Grúas Minguella has relied on Liebherr machines since day one due to the latter's high-quality products and excellent customer service. The company has a fleet of 13 cranes, all built by Liebherr. Grúas Minguella was also one of the first companies in Spain to procure the Liebherr LTM 1450-8.1 mobile crane. The 450-tonne machine is currently the largest crane in its fleet.