At 7 am on Sunday morning, 10 June, while most other people were still sleeping, the builders who are constructing the third incineration line at Twence in Hengelo were hard at work on an important job. The heat exchanger for the flue-gas purification plant had to be lifted into place. To get the 70-ton colossus into the right spot, Wagenborg Nedlift was using a mobile crane with a lifting capacity of 500 tons.

The new component had only recently been built at the manufacturer Geurts International in Zeist, a subcontractor of LAB SA in Lyon, which is in charge of the construction of the flue-gas purification plant at Twence. The construction was shipped in various parts to Hengelo, where it was assembled on site at Wagenborg Nedlift, the lifting and transport company. Early that Sunday morning, the brand-new heavyweight travelled the final metres of its journey – from Diamantstraat to Boldershoekweg – with the help of an SPMT (Self-Propelled Modular Trailer). With its eight axels, this giant trailer – good for a net carrying capacity of some 280 tons – had no difficulty whatsoever with its load. Thanks to its wheels, each of which can make a 260-degree turn, the driver managed to manoeuvre the load to the foot of the crane, which subsequently lifted the flue-gas filter into place.

The reason for doing this job on a Sunday morning was that no other activities were being carried out on the site at that moment. At any other time, all other construction activities would have had to come to a halt during the lifting for safety reasons.