A new Liebherr LB 44-510 rotary drilling rig, Liebherr’s largest rotary drilling rig, the LB 44-510, is going to work on a pile boring job in Kuala Lumpur. The Sentral Suites residential development is considered a landmark project in the KL Sentral district, likely the last major residential development in the area.

The LB 44-510 isn’t the only Liebherr machine in use. Malaysian foundations and geotechnical specialist Aneka Jaringan Sdn Bhd is also using a new Liebherr LB 36 rig, the second largest machine in the range. In addition, two duty cycle crawler cranes, an HS 8100 HD and an HS 855 HD, are being used for slurry wall trenching. The crawler cranes are being used to excavate 600 meters of slurry wall that surrounds part of the site, with the two rotary drilling rigs boring the holes for 366 piles.

The KL Sentral district project is being developed by MRCB Land. It will include three towers, the tallest of which is 45 stories. Aneka Jaringan is undertaking the foundation and excavation contract. The company moved onto the site in mid-January and is working to an 18-month schedule, due for completion in July 2018.

The LB 44-510 is one of the first of this model to have been delivered to Southeast Asia. Both Liebherr rotary drilling rigs were delivered with extensive training for Aneka Jaringan’s operators and service personnel. Loke Kien Tuck, director of Aneka Jaringan, says the LB 44 and the LB 36 are boring to maximum depths of 35 meters with the maximum pile diameter being 1.8 meters.

“Because of the local regulations, the site can work only between the hours of 8 a.m. and 7 p.m.,” Jaringan says. “We therefore have to work quickly, and the two machines are proving to be very fast. The ground is quite hard, being mostly silty sand, and we are taking between five and six hours to bore down to between 30 and 35 meters. That means we can complete the boring and casing installation in one day, and then pour the concrete the following morning.”

The Liebherr HS 8100HD, equipped with a mechanical slurry wall grab, and the HS 855 HD duty cycle crawler crane, equipped with a hydraulic slurry wall grab, are excavating to a maximum depth of 22 meters for the 0.6-meter width slurry wall. The cranes are digging the trench in sections of 6.5 meters, each section taking an average of four days to complete.

Tuck says that water-soluble polymer is being used to stabilize the borehole rather than bentonite, as it has a lower environmental impact and is more cost-effective to use on this project.

Liebherr’s product range includes earthmoving and material handling machinery, mining equipment, mobile cranes, construction cranes, machine tools and automation systems as well as high-performance components for mechanical, hydraulic and electrical drive and control technology. For more information, go to www.liebherr.com.