Hong Kong project for Liebherr

Three Liebherr duty cycle crawler cranes were recently involved in the deep foundation work for a housing project in Hong Kong. Piles with a volume of 300m³ each were installed in a restricted space with difficult ground conditions.

The contractor for this project was the company Vibro (H.K.) Ltd., which specialises in foundation work in difficult ground conditions.

The first stage was carried out by two HS 885 HD machines and one HS 8130 HD, each fitted with a mechanical grab and an oscillator. In order to achieve the necessary depth of 50m, the contractor required ten working days per pile.

The reason for the long production time was due to the difficult ground conditions. First of all groundwater emerged, followed by rock with a high strength of 150 MPa. In order to penetrate this hard layer, the RCD method was used. With a diameter of 3m, up to 300m³ of concrete was required for the completion of each pile.

Restricted space was an issue, with the job site located in the middle of a residential area of Kowloon and borders directly on existing buildings. Kowloon is one of the urban areas of Hong Kong.

In order to keep the noise level for the residents as low as possible, work could only be carried out between 07.00 and 19.00 hours. 

Using the Eco-Silent Mode, the engine speed can be reduced to a predefined level. Therefore, both a significant reduction in diesel consumption and lower noise emission can be achieved without influencing operation output.

The deep foundation work lasted for six months and was recently completed.