Heavy-lift specialist Mammoet has used battery power to slide an 850-tonne concrete tunnel section into place under railway tracks in Belgium.
It took less than an hour to slide the 25m-long, 8.5m-wide tunnel under the tracks in plenty of time for the Monday morning commute near Brussels, the company said.
Hired by Stadsbader Contractors, Mammoet used hydraulic jacks to lift it.
Then, hydraulic cylinders pushed the tunnel over Teflon pad-equipped skid tracks to its destination.
The operation was powered completely by a mobile battery power pack using recycled batteries with a maximum capacity of 50kWh.
The unit weighs 1,460kg and has loading capacity for an additional 1,000kg of auxiliary equipment on its roof rack. It accepts standard inputs and outputs at 16, 32 or 63A.
Its can also be charged using solar energy.
Mammoet engineers tested the system on transformer installations before using it on the bigger Belgian project.
“We have demonstrated that through innovative engineering and combining new and existing technology we have the ability to execute zero emission heavy lift projects for our customers, and that’s the future,” said Pascal Eeken, innovation manager for Mammoet Europe.
