End of an era

Built to the south of Frankfurt airport and covering 150 hectares, the US airbase at Rhein-Main, Germany, was one the USA’s most important overseas bases. After 60 years or service, it officially closed at the end of 2005.

The base is now being demolished to make way for a third terminal and additional runways for the main city airport it lived alongside for so long.

The hangers and air base terminal with its four departure halls have already been removed. German demolition contractor Max Wild, based out of Illerbachen, is now removing the remaining halls, crew quarters and residential/office buildings – which will involve the removal and processing of 160,000 m³ (5.7 million ft³) of material.

Wilde is using a Sandvik BR3890 breaker and a Sandvik BC2022 cutter-crusher mounted on Liebherr Litronic excavators to carry out the primary demolition. The Liebherrs use the company’s Likufix quick couplers and integrated hydraulic coupling, allowing the attachments to be used across a small number of carriers with very rapid tool changeovers.

Wild is currently operating six Liebherrs in total on the site, along with a mobile crushing and screening plant from Extec to process the resulting demolition waste, a large part of which will be reused on the site.