Bridge Building in a Bottleneck: Seven Liebherr Cranes Thread the Needle on Switzerland’s N16
Between a motorway, a railway line and a river, Walo Bertschinger AG is replacing two bridges on the Swiss N16 national road — with seven Liebherr cranes handling every lift while traffic keeps flowing.
A construction site with no elbow room
The N16 — the Transjurane — connects the canton of Jura with the Swiss Mittelland. On behalf of the Federal Roads Office, Walo Bertschinger is replacing one bridge and building another between Tavannes and Biel. The narrow valley location limits lorry deliveries to a handful per day, so every lift has to be planned to the centimetre. Two existing bridges sit immediately next to the site, and work has been under way since July 2024, with completion due in December 2026.
Cranes across the phases
For the first bridge (D19), a 270 EC-B 12, a 90 EC-B 6 and a 65 K self-erecting crane worked from 2024 to 2025, with an L1-32 on the D333 span. For the second bridge (D19A), the 270 EC-B 12 and 90 EC-B 6 return through 2026, joined by an 81 K self-erector. The cranes carry the full logistics load for the in-situ concrete construction: steel girders for the falsework, timber formwork, reinforcement and assembly structures.
22 metres of falsework, no support
The trickiest job was erecting the falsework — the temporary steel structure carrying the bridge deck while the concrete cures — across a 22-metre span without any intermediate support. All of it happened next to a live railway line and the open motorway, with crane reach and working methods adapted to SBB Rail’s safety requirements and parts of the work squeezed into night and weekend closures.
Source: Liebherr — Photos: Liebherr
Project facts
- Project: N16 bridge replacement, Tavannes–Biel (CH)
- Client: Federal Roads Office (FEDRO)
- Contractor: Walo Bertschinger AG
- Duration: 7/2024 – 12/2026
- Falsework span: 22 m, no intermediate support
Cranes on site
- 270 EC-B 12
- 90 EC-B 6
- 65 K & 81 K self-erecting
- L1-32