Felbermayr: Crane job for world’s biggest church bell in Bucharest
More than three metres high, the largest one of the five bells of the new orthodox Church in Bucharest is regarded as the largest suspended church bell in the world. The 25-tonne bell was lifted into place in early September using a mobile crane of Felbermayr Romania.
Gabriel Puscoiu, Felbermayr’s Head of Operations on site, began to prepare for the job as early as one month before the actual date. “Using computer-aided planning, we found out that the lifting job can be achieved using a 500-tonne class mobile crane,” Puscoiu explains and adds that this was not clear from the beginning.
Thanks to meticulous preparation and the experiences of all those involved the team nonetheless managed to perform the lift job with a hook height of 80 metres according to the simulation. Lifting the other four bells into place was ‘bell’s play’ compared to their big brother. Together with the largest one, they weigh in at some 33 tonnes, creating a monumental chime.
Next on the agenda was the lifting in of the 96-tonne dome with a hook height of 102 metres. This time, there was no getting around the use of a crawler crane with a higher load capacity.