Ready in an Hour, Done in Three Days: the LRB 19 Makes Short Piling Jobs Pay

Heisig Spezialtief- und Wasserbau drove 36 double sheet piles for a new grain silo in Lower Saxony, and says quick set-up is what makes small jobs worth taking

On a big foundation project, two days to rig and de-rig a piling machine disappear in the schedule. On a three-day job, they wipe out the margin. For specialist contractors that live on short projects, set-up time is money.

That is how Heisig Spezialtief- und Wasserbau GmbH judges its Liebherr LRB 19 piling and drilling rig. “Set-up and dismantling times are fairly important for us. We also have small construction jobs. If we need two days to set up and dismantle then that is not economical,” said Jan ter Beek, Manager at Heisig. “Now we are ready in an hour and can start straight away.”

Moving without a permit

Transport was the other deciding factor. “We can transport it under 60 tonnes and if we remove the counterweight, even under 40 tonnes, with our own low-loader and without a heavy load permit,” ter Beek said. For a contractor that moves from site to site every few days, avoiding permits and third-party haulage is a direct saving.

The job in Clenze

The rig’s latest assignment was a temporary sheet pile wall for a new grain silo in Clenze, Lower Saxony. Fitted with a Liebherr LV 23 vibrator, the LRB 19 drove 36 double sheet piles 10 metres into the ground, with a vibrating time of about five minutes per pile. “The performance of the vibrator is very good. You can tell that it is well suited to the LRB 19,” ter Beek said.

The site was not easy: stiff cohesive soil, little space, and existing infrastructure and utility lines close by. The compact rig could still work precisely around the small excavation. “The working radius is also extremely positive compared to the competition,” ter Beek added. A new hose sledge keeps hoses out of the way during sheet piling, removing a common nuisance on site.

Heisig completed the whole job in three days.

One rig, many tools

The LRB 19, named after its 19-metre sledge travel, covers a wide range of foundation work. For piling and vibrating it can carry Liebherr’s H 6 hammer or the LV 23 and LV 23 F vibrators. It also handles Kelly drilling, double rotary head, full displacement, continuous flight auger and soil mixing.

Tool changes are where the rig saves the most time. A hydraulic quick connection system couples all hydraulic, mechanical and electrical lines automatically, without tools and without the operator leaving the cab. That also prevents connection errors. “It used to always take us an hour for the change between vibrator and rotary drive,” ter Beek said. “Now we exchange them in ten minutes.”

For contractors bidding on a steady stream of small foundation jobs, the lesson from Clenze is simple: the faster a rig arrives, rigs up and switches tools, the more of those jobs become profitable.