Iveco reaches new heights

The construction industry is renowned for being innovative and proving there is more than one way to skin a cat.

In that vein, a European construction company has come up with a novel way to transport six 48-tonne tipper trucks nearly two kilometres above sea level in the Swiss Alps.

The company, GMI (Groupement Marti Implenia), won the tender to build a 5.6-kilometre tunnel and the caverns required to house an underground hydroelectric power plant on the Swiss/French border at Martigny and Chamonix, a region famous for its skiing.

The €682 million ($925 million) project is due to be completed in 2017, when it will provide more than 600 megawatts of power to the region.

The massive Astra rigid trucks, made by Iveco, which is part of the Fiat group, are powered by engines producing 480 horsepower (358kW) and 2300Nm of torque and rely on Allison automatic transmissions to traverse the dangerous mountain terrain.

The challenge for GMI was how to transport the six trucks from the base of the mountain to the worksite nearly two kilometres up.

The solution was to reconstruct a cable lift, similar to a ski lift, to carry them. To handle 48 tonnes, some serious re-engineering was called for but after five months in use, the lift process is exceeding expectations, with the operators reporting no failures.

The Astra HD8 is a robust construction truck chosen for its ability to handle steep, unmade terrain and carry loads of up to 50 tonnes. Some models of articulated Astra trucks are used in Australian quarry and mining operations. A construction company spokesman says they can only work from April to November, due to weather restrictions.

The Astra trucks are legendary in this type of application and their Allison automatic transmissions are specially designed and fitted with an integral hydraulic retarder, a feature that enables a fully laden truck to travel the severe grades around the site.

This transmission allows the driver to conserve the truck's brakes and provides another level of safety in a perilous environment. It also provides maximum driving comfort, uninterrupted power to the wheels and increased control of the vehicle at lower speeds.

Another important consideration for the construction consortium was the change of drivers across the three daily shifts.

GMI's Niklaus Zaugg says the personnel working in the tunnels are not used to driving all types of trucks, so it's important that vehicles are easy to manoeuvre.

''Only fully automatic transmissions can ensure an operation free of bad surprises, like clutch failures resulting from wrong manoeuvres and subsequent downtimes for servicing,'' he says.

''With these automatic-equipped trucks, our operators were able to drive the Astra HD8 from the very first day.''