Due to the constant expansion of the mining area, the mine is growing continuously – and has now reached the outskirts of the city. A solution for the infrastructure there is urgently needed.
Numerous buildings are now in an area at risk of collapsing, including historically important houses. „The rescue of these structures is now in the hands of our Swedish customer Jinert and its Cometto SPMT fleet,“ says Joachim Kolb, Sales Manager at Cometto, explaining the special challenges of this extraordinary job.
Centre of gravity of the load precisely in the middle of the SPMT
„There are currently two buildings in focus,“ CEO Björn Jinert reports. „One of them is a 200-tonne wooden house that once served as a community meeting house. The second building, which is protected by a special film, weighs an impressive 500 tonnes.“ With a length of 22 metres, a width of 20 metres and a height of 8 metres, the dimensions of this structure are also remarkable. Joakim Andersson, transport manager for the SPMT operations at Jinert, is well prepared: „My team has assembled a 16-axle lines Cometto SPMT combination in a side-by-side group. We can easily move up to 1,400 tonnes on the 128 wheels of this fully electronically steered self-propelled 48-tonne series – so safety is guaranteed.“
With extreme precision, the buildings are driven under and carefully lifted. After a few minor adjustments, the centre of gravity of the load is located exactly in the middle of the SPMT vehicle combination. Then the journey begins – about five kilometres to the new historic centre of Kiruna, the future location of the buildings. Due to the impressive dimensions of the load, the Jinert team had to dismantle lamp posts, traffic lights and crash barriers along the route in advance. Finally, after the European route E10 had been closed exclusively for the transport, nothing stood in the way of a smooth journey.
Stability and reliability
„The arrival at the destination went completely without a hitch and I would like to emphasise that neither a gutter nor a roof tile of the buildings was damaged during the entire transport,“ says Joakim Andersson about the course of this special mission. „The Cometto SPMT has once again proven to be an extremely stable and reliable vehicle that has enabled us to work absolutely stress-free. It was really fantastic how smoothly the whole thing went. With the Cometto MSPE , we at Jinert are really ... propelled to the MAX!“ A successful dress rehearsal for the Swedish transport professionals, because there is still a lot to do in Kiruna when it comes to the transport of buildings. Another eleven buildings are scheduled to be rescued in the summer of 2025.
Publication: 05/2025