Jekko SPX328 flown by helicopter to a Dolomites refuge

A jobsite with no road

The Municipality of La Villa, in Alta Badia, commissioned a new mountain hut of roughly 80 m² close to the Rifugio Gardenacia, inside the Puez-Odle Nature Park. The site sits at 2,050 metres above sea level and can only be reached on foot, which ruled out every conventional means of getting lifting equipment to the working area.

Main contractor Nagler Holzbau Srl built the hut from high-efficiency prefabricated timber modules and turned to Jekko dealer NMG Italia for the lifting. NMG selected the SPX328 tracked mini crane, chosen for its compact footprint and, above all, for the fact that it can be broken down into light sub-assemblies suitable for helicopter or light-vehicle transport.

“Finding the optimal solution for this specific case was the cornerstone of the project. We chose the SPX328 because it’s compact, versatile, agile and intuitive to use, and because it was designed for quick disassembly into lightweight components that can be transported by helicopter or light vehicles. To keep helicopter usage time to a minimum and reduce logistics costs, as well as on-site working time, we carefully planned the crane’s disassembly procedure, component balancing and subsequent reassembly at altitude.”

— Stefano Vecchiato, project manager, NMG Italia

Dismantling, flying, rebuilding

Strip-down began at NMG’s premises in Verona. The telescopic boom came off first, with controlled disconnection of the hydraulic and electrical circuits, followed by the four outriggers and finally the lithium battery pack and ancillary equipment. The crane was then split into four macro-blocks, each kept within a 1,000 kg limit and balanced for slinging under the helicopter. The flights themselves took only a few dozen minutes in total.

Reassembly at altitude followed the reverse sequence — battery first, then outriggers, then the telescopic boom. The whole operation, from dismantling to commissioning on site, was completed over two planned days. With the crane working, most of the hut’s perimeter structure went up in a few hours and the building was handed over turnkey in under a week.

After-sales as engineering support

Jekko’s after-sales team worked alongside NMG through each phase of the job, from the initial teardown to the commissioning check at the refuge.

“These projects really show what technical assistance means today. Our partners, like NMG Italia, are extremely skilled and technically qualified. Thanks to interlocutors like these, Jekko’s after-sales role becomes more consultative: supporting the customer through every operational and planning phase, especially when conditions become extreme.”

— Igor Pachera, After Sales Manager, Jekko

On remote sites where weather closes the working window without warning, transport planning is no longer a support task but a determining factor in whether the job runs at all. The full account of the project is published as a Jekko case study.

Source: Jekko — Photos: Jekko