In the Belly of the Wall – In the Belly of the Mountain
The Weidemann 1280 with a bucket and pallet fork is doing a special kind of "underground" operation in Switzerland.
The Swiss Gigerwaldsee is located in Calfeisen Valley in the municipality of Pfäfers in the canton of St. Gallen. Since the construction of the dam and the plant in 1976, the Sarganserland KSL power stations have been producing around 460 million kilowatt-hours of electricity every year. The KSL is thus an important regional power producer and employer. The water fed into the plant comes from the Calfeisen Valley and the neighbouring Weisstannen Valley. It is collected in the Gigerwald reservoir and runs into the central facilities of Mapragg near Vadura and Sarelli near Bad Ragaz and through the power turbines.
You could rightly say that the Gigerwald reservoir is not easily accessible: It lies between the nearly 2,000 m high rugged and steeply projecting limestone walls at the northern foot of the Ringelspitz. The reservoir is bordered in the west by the idyllic Walser river settlement of St. Martin, which is only serviced in the summer, and the nearly 150 m high dam walls in the east.
The reservoir can be reached via Bad Ragaz through the Tamina Valley. The last major village is Vättis. From there, the mountain road, and on the summer weekends a PostBus route, leads to the approximately 400 m tall dam. A narrow road on the southern shore of the lake leads through some tunnels to the former Walser river settlement of St. Martin. The road is closed in the winter due to the danger of avalanches. Due to its seclusion, Gigerwaldsee has a great appeal to tourists and can be reached during the summer by hiking. It is also possible to visit the power plants and the adjacent geopark.
A Weidemann in application in the seclusion of the Swiss mountains.
Daily transport and logistics work in the dam and in the adjoining underground galleries led to KSL looking for a machine that can speedily travel at 30 km/h in the up to 15 km long galleries. The 1280 from Weidemann was prepared for such an area of application and, for example, was equipped with a particle filter and a biodegradable oil. To be able to manage the low passages in the narrow and tight galleries, the machine received a fold-down overhead guard eps (Easy Protection System). The visibility conditions underground were optimised with two additional work lights on the oscillating suspension unit.
Of course manoeuvrability played a decisive role when choosing the machine. With its inner radius of just 1.42 m and the maximum external radius, including bucket, of just 2.91 m, the machine can easily fit through tight spots. The 1280 from Weidemann is also used for cleaning and to maintain the supply galleries to the Gigerwald dam from the town of Vättis. The whole operation takes place up to 1 km under the earth's surface. Of course you need a reliable machine here. It has been in service since November 2014 and if "something should happen", KSL can always rely on the Weidemann dealer Good Maschinencenter AG in the neighbouring town.
