Heavy haulage transport with giant hand

“We have mastered larger and more difficult challenges in the past,” says Jürgen Stütler from Bau-Trans. It’s hard to beat the level of oddity that transporting a giant hand provides, opines the department manager of the Vorarlberg-based company that also specialises in crane and platform rentals. 

Finesse required for heavy haulage transport

The hand which – in the end – measured 17 metres in height and 20 tonnes in weight, had been made some ten kilometres away from the Festival Hall. “In order to prepare it for transport, the hand was divided into two halves,” Stütler explains. Nonetheless, preparations took two months in which permits were acquired and street signs removed. In the end, the team managed to haul the oversized hand to Bregenz Festival Hall undamaged and safely. Thanks to excellent preparation, no problems were encountered on the way. Using a work platform, the team was able to convince a few branches that obviously wanted to shake the hand to refrain from it. “Thank god,” Stütler remarks with a wink for otherwise their life would have been cut short with a chainsaw. The next day, the halves of the hand were lifted onto a boat by cranes and transported to the lake-mounted stage. After that the two-part hand was made whole again.

“Thanks to our careful transport methods, they didn't even have to touch up the nail polish,” Stütler adds with a grin, happy that he and his team have made an important contribution to the stage decoration of Bregenz Festival.