[VIDEO] Amazing Footage On Top of a Tower Crane Building Europe’s Tallest Building

Over the years, Liebherr, the German Crane Manufacturer, has given us some absolutely amazing videos.  For example, they put on a show for their best customers one year and lifted one crane with another crane, which was lifted by a third crane, which was then lifted by a fourth crane. Another video highlighted the 58 cranes that were on site at the same time at the world’s largest airport build in Istanbul. Well, the company is back at it again, this time on top of Europe’s new tallest building.

The Lakhta Tower, which stands in St. Petersburg, Russia, will stand 1,516 feet in the air at its highest point. The LEED Platinum building began construction in 2012 and is scheduled to be completed this year. Once officially opened, it will surpass Russia’s Federation Tower (1,226 feet) as Europe’s new tallest building.

In addition to being the future tallest in Europe, the building also broke a couple records.  It holds the Guinness World Record for largest continuous concrete pour at 19,264 cubic meters, some 3,000 more cubic meters than the previous record holder.  Its curtain wall is also the world’s largest cold-bent façade by area.

More specifically related to Liebherr and its cranes, the one highlighted in the video stands 1410 feet in the air.  To safely operate a crane at that height, it has to undergo routine maintenance.  The height, however, is only one of the challenges of servicing the machine.

Russia is well known for their blistering cold weather and, at its coldest, the top of the crane can get down to -25 degrees F and up to 80 mph winds.  The building site is right next to the Gulf of Finland and only 621 miles from the Artic Circle.

For the main building, three Liebherr 710 HC-L 32/64 Litronic tower cranes were used, according to Liebherr. Each crane has a maximum working load of 70 tons (64 metric tons) and lifting speeds of up to 577 feet per minute. 

Liebherr was able to get some absolutely amazing footage of their service technician climbing the massive crane and checking its components, which you can watch below.  The video is not in English, though, so be sure to turn on the closed captioning option to understand what’s being said.

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